Do Electric and Hybrid Cars Really Need Servicing?

“There’s no oil and no exhaust, so there’s nothing to service.” It is the single most common thing we hear from new electric car owners, and it is one of the more expensive misconceptions in motoring.

An electric car genuinely does have fewer moving parts and genuinely is cheaper to maintain. But fewer is not none, and several of the jobs that remain matter more on an EV than they did on the petrol car it replaced — for reasons that are not at all obvious until they go wrong.

Dom’s Garage Services in Letchworth services electric and hybrid vehicles. Here is what that actually involves.

What genuinely goes away

Let us give the myth its due first, because a lot of it is true. A pure EV has no:

• Engine oil or oil filter
• Spark plugs, glow plugs or ignition coils
• Cambelt or timing chain
• Exhaust, catalytic converter, DPF or AdBlue system
• Clutch, in the conventional sense — most EVs use a single-speed reduction gear
• Fuel filter, fuel pump or injectors
• Air filter for the engine (though there is still one for the cabin)

That is a substantial list, and it is why EV servicing is generally quicker and cheaper. It is also, unfortunately, where most people stop reading.

What stays — and why some of it matters more

Brake fluid

Brake fluid absorbs moisture from the atmosphere whether the car burns petrol, diesel or nothing at all. The two-year change interval applies to an EV exactly as it does to anything else, and it is one of the most commonly skipped jobs on electric cars precisely because owners assume servicing does not apply to them.

Brakes that seize from not being used enough

This is the genuinely counter-intuitive one, and it is the most common EV fault we see.

Regenerative braking means the electric motor does most of the slowing down, recovering energy back into the battery. In normal driving — particularly with one-pedal driving enabled — the friction brakes may barely be touched for weeks at a time.

Brakes do not like that. Discs corrode and pit because nothing is wiping them clean. Caliper slider pins seize in place because nothing is working them. Pads bond to discs after the car sits outside in the wet. And because the regen is quietly compensating, the car often feels completely normal right up until the moment you need the friction brakes hard — or until it fails an MOT on corroded discs at three years old with barely any pad wear.

An EV brake service — stripping, cleaning and re-lubricating the calipers and sliders — is not an upsell. It is arguably the single most valuable job on an electric car, and it is one almost nobody thinks to ask for.

Coolant — and there is often more of it than you think

People assume no engine means no cooling system. In fact many EVs have two or three separate coolant circuits: one for the traction battery, one for the power electronics and inverter, and one for the motor. They are what keep the battery in its happy temperature window, which is what protects its long-term capacity.

The coolant in those circuits still degrades and still needs changing at the manufacturer’s interval, and a fault in a battery cooling loop is not something to find out about the hard way.

The 12-volt battery — the number one reason EVs get recovered

Almost every EV still has a conventional 12V battery under the bonnet or in the boot. It runs the lights, the locks, the infotainment, the computers — and, critically, it is what wakes the car up and closes the contactors that connect the big traction battery.

Which produces the situation EV owners find baffling: a completely charged car that will not do anything at all. The traction battery can be sitting at 90% and it is irrelevant, because the car cannot switch itself on to get at it. Breakdown organisations consistently report the 12V battery as the leading cause of EV callouts, ahead of anything to do with charging or range.

These batteries also lead a harder life than you might expect, because the car wakes periodically to run pre-conditioning, updates and app connectivity while parked. Testing it is a routine part of servicing and takes minutes. Being stranded by it does not.

Tyres — expect to buy them more often

Electric cars are heavy. A battery pack adds a lot of weight low in the chassis, and instant torque from a standstill puts more load through the tyre than a petrol engine does. Both wear tyres faster.

They also frequently need specific tyres, not just any that fit — correct load rating for the extra mass, often a noise-reducing foam liner because there is no engine noise to mask road roar, and in some cases a manufacturer-specified pattern. Fitting cheap replacements of the wrong specification will cost you range, quietness and often the tyres themselves in short order.

Regular pressure checks and correct alignment matter more on an EV, not less, for exactly the same reasons.

Cabin filter, wipers, screenwash, suspension

All entirely unchanged. The cabin filter still blocks with pollen and dust, and on a car with such a quiet interior a musty vent smell is far more noticeable. Suspension bushes, dampers and springs work harder under the extra weight, and knocks and creaks tend to appear a little earlier in an EV’s life than in an equivalent petrol car.

Air conditioning — no longer just comfort

On many electric cars the air conditioning circuit is part of the thermal management of the battery pack itself, and a heat pump may be doing the cabin heating too. A refrigerant leak on an EV can therefore mean more than warm air on a hot day — it can affect battery cooling and, on some cars, your ability to heat the cabin efficiently in winter. Worth having checked rather than ignored.

Hybrids: the worst of both worlds, maintenance-wise

Hybrids need everything on the list above and everything a petrol or diesel car needs, plus a few problems that are unique to them.

• The engine runs intermittently and often cold. On a plug-in hybrid used mostly on electric power for short trips, the engine may rarely reach full operating temperature. That means condensation in the oil, fuel dilution, and carbon build-up — so the oil change interval matters more, not less, even though the mileage is low.
• Time-based servicing becomes essential. A PHEV that covers 4,000 miles a year still needs its annual service. Oil degrades on a calendar, not an odometer.
• Diesel hybrids get DPF problems. An engine that keeps shutting off struggles to complete a regeneration. See our separate piece on DPFs — it applies doubly here.
• The 12V battery issue applies too, along with the same regen-related brake corrosion.
• Brake fluid, coolant, filters, plugs and belts all continue on their normal schedules.

A hybrid is not a low-maintenance car. It is a car with two powertrains, both of which need looking after.

What about the MOT?

Electric cars take their first MOT at three years old exactly like anything else. There is no emissions test and no exhaust noise check, but everything else is unchanged: brakes, tyres, suspension, steering, lights, wipers, seatbelts, structure and — as covered above — the tyre pressure monitoring system.

In practice EVs most often fail on brakes and tyres. Which, given everything above, should not be a surprise.

Can an independent garage service an electric car?

Yes — and it will not affect your manufacturer’s warranty, provided the work is done to the correct schedule with the right parts and properly documented. That is a legal protection you have, and we have written about it separately.

Working on electric and hybrid vehicles does require training and the right equipment. High-voltage systems carry genuine risk and must be isolated correctly before certain work is carried out, which is why not every garage offers it. We do, and we are happy to talk through exactly what we will and will not be doing to your car before it comes in.

Frequently asked questions

How often does an EV need servicing?

Follow the manufacturer’s schedule — typically annually or every couple of years depending on the make, with some items on longer intervals. The important thing is that it is time-based as much as mileage-based, so a low-mileage EV still needs its annual check.

Will servicing my EV at an independent invalidate the battery warranty?

Battery warranties are usually separate and longer than the vehicle warranty, and are generally conditional on you not doing something unreasonable to the pack rather than on where you have the car serviced. Keeping a full, documented service history to the correct schedule is what protects you either way.

Do you need special equipment for hybrids and EVs?

Yes — insulated tools, the correct isolation procedure and manufacturer-appropriate diagnostic equipment, plus trained technicians. It is not a job to attempt without them.

My EV’s brakes have barely worn in three years. Do they still need attention?

That is precisely when they need attention. Low wear plus low use is the recipe for corroded discs and seized calipers. Have them cleaned and serviced.

Should I be worried about the traction battery?

Modern packs are proving durable and degrade slowly. What helps is avoiding sitting at 100% or near-empty for long periods, using rapid charging when you need it rather than as routine, and keeping the cooling system in good order — which brings us back to servicing.

Electric and hybrid servicing in Letchworth

If you have moved to an EV or a hybrid and are not sure what it actually needs — or you have been told it needs nothing at all — come and talk to us. We will go through the manufacturer’s schedule for your car, tell you what is genuinely due and what is not, and we will not invent work to fill a service sheet.

Dom’s Garage Services, 11 Protea Way, Letchworth, SG6 1JT. Book online or call the workshop.