He sees EVs in a way their makers never wanted anyone to: literally stripped bare, often damaged and broken, seeking either resurrection or reclamation.<\/p>\n
It would be easy to dismiss Corbally as another voice in the online chorus insisting they\u2019ll \u201cstick with a diesel Avensis\u201d. That would be a mistake. <\/p>\n
His criticism of EVs is not ideological; it\u2019s practical and grounded in what he sees on the workshop floor. <\/p>\n
\u201cEVs are supposed to be better for the environment,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you want a car to be better for the environment, it has to last for 20 years and cover about half a million kilometres. And that means it has to be repairable within those 20 years at a cost that\u2019s reasonable to the consumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argues that current policies are too heavily weighted towards new car sales. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the grants for EVs are all focused on selling new cars, well then that\u2019s just incentivising car makers to only think about new cars, and that means they\u2019ll push up the price of the second-hand parts, because then they get the benefit of another \u20ac5,000 grant and the sale of another new car. <\/p>\n
His alternative seems disarmingly simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf, instead, the grant was that after a certain number of years, you could go and spend \u20ac5,000 or \u20ac10,000 refurbishing the car, well that would change the whole market. <\/p>\n
[\u00a0Concerns over electric car chargers and the risk of over-paymentOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cNow, you\u2019re not afraid to go and buy a second-hand EV, because you know that if you meet the criteria, you can get a grant to spend on it if something goes wrong. So yes, I think the reward system is wrong, and if we don\u2019t reward the right things, we\u2019re going to get the wrong outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n His idea is to shift the focus of attention from purchase to lifespan, from sales to sustainability.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve nothing against EVs,\u201d Corbally says. \u201cWe have seen on the ground that there are problems, problems with batteries, chargers, heaters and so on. I think a lot of the pushback comes from the fact that, to me, EVs have been sold as vehicles that need no maintenance, that don\u2019t give problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Corbally has a point \u2013 although no car maker has yet been daft enough to proclaim its electric models don\u2019t need servicing, there has been a great deal of talk that EVs need less servicing, and less often, than a diesel or petrol car. <\/p>\n Although that is true, up to a point, it\u2019s also possibly the worst thing any advertisement or salesperson could say to an Irish car buyer. <\/p>\n We have an unlovely yet justified reputation as a nation that does not take proper care of our cars. Ask any car dealer in the country to compare the quality of imported second-hand cars with cars originally registered in Ireland, and even a hint that electric cars need less care is less of a red flag to a bull, and more of a white flag of surrender. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not only with EVs, it\u2019s with all modern vehicles,\u201d says Corbally. \u201cThe tolerances are so fine in a modern car that there\u2019s no room for complacency. If someone drives their car with a warning light on, they\u2019re just adding to their eventual cost with every kilometre. <\/p>\n \u201cBut the EV has been sold in Ireland like a vehicle that doesn\u2019t need maintenance. And what happens is people believe that, but it\u2019s only a different drivetrain. All the other parts of the car are still there, and software is really important now on EV updates and making sure that they\u2019re kept up to date.\u201d<\/p>\n Corbally says he regularly sees the problems with all aspects of electric cars, from the batteries and the charging systems, to the heating that warms up both the cabin and the battery. \u201cIt\u2019s like the element of your kettle, essentially. The more times you heat it up and cool it down, the more chance there is of a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Other issues, surprisingly, involve oil. Many people are surprised to hear electric cars need oil, but, as pointed out, there are still metal parts meeting other metal parts \u2013 in the steering, the suspension, even the air conditioning system \u2013 and all of that must be carefully lubricated. Where you have oil, you will eventually have leaks. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s wear and tear,\u201d says Corbally. \u201cIf you leave oil in something long enough, eventually it will accumulate little fragments of metal, and eventually it just becomes a grinding paste.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it is batteries that most concern people when it comes to EV worries. <\/p>\n In general, we should be confident in electric car batteries, as independent research has consistently shown they\u2019re far more reliable than we thought. They\u2019re becoming better all the time when it comes to longevity. <\/p>\n However, like any component on any car, they can fail, and if that happens outside a warranty, it can still lead to significant expense. <\/p>\n Yet haven\u2019t we been told that battery prices on the global wholesale market are dropping like a rock and that replacing battery modules, or even an entire battery, should now be much cheaper?<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen the price of anything coming down in the past few years,\u201d says Corbally. \u201cWhat we find with EVs is that, yes, they\u2019re lower in maintenance, and they have a lower cost of maintenance, but when you do have a failure, it\u2019s three times the price to get something fixed. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a BMW 330e plug-in hybrid in at the moment that needs a new battery module, and just that one module is \u20ac1,400. Last October, we priced a full replacement battery for a Tesla Model 3, and that was \u20ac15,000.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Service](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2OIBBZK3IZBKPANWFROSS4QBPE.jpg\")
Service Stop’s David Corbally with some of the EV battery repair equipment in the garage in Westpalstown, Oldtown, Co Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill<\/p>\n