Hey James Smith . . .
Welcome. As with Don, I basically opted out of your survey because it was largely a "one size fits none" list that didn't realistically address the issues at hand I'm encountering. After answering the first question or two (basically declaring what vehicle I own,) I came across scenarios that didn't really fit my situation. For instance, I purchased a used i-MiEV about 8 months ago, which I'm sure was serviced at the dealer by the previous/original leasee (I'd have to do some online research via the Carfax report to determine when, where, how often and for what,) but I have yet to deal with interfacing with an authorized dealer myself. Do I say there that the vehicle has never been serviced? So, I skipped through that question and simply read the rest without checking the boxes. As expected, I found many of those similarly non-applicable to my used EV ownership situation and I didn't click "submit" at the end. In an attempt to go back to help you catalogue specific survey questions I found lacking, I encountered an electronic "You've already taken the survey" roadblock. So, Survey Monkey has me down as completing the questionnaire, even though I really didn't.
Consequently, I would suggest you do what you are doing now: attempt to gather wordy comments from EV owners and let them tell you within their own terms of their real world scenarios, instead of hoping to catalogue fragments of information with a vague detachment of a simple questionnaire. Talk may be cheap, but there is actual value in much of it. Narrowly cast surveys, on the other hand, are typically worthless. Yours, I'm afraid (no offense,) is particularly lacking.
I'll echo a lot of what sais47 has already written in regards to being at the mercy of factory-authorized dealerships servicing our newer electric cars . . . until, of course, all the warranties expire and we're all completely on our own. But OEM EVs are still so new and so few of them have been driven enough distance or for enough years to get to that point. Get back to us in another 5 to 7 years and I'm sure many of us will have stories to tell on that front.
But I'm also not as certain, as sai47 is, that your generation is completely ready to abandon automotive ownership altogether and in favor of being Ubered everywhere without a live human driving. As well, I don't completely buy into the argument that many futurists are currently making in regards to actual ownership of cars falling to the wayside.
I think we'll end up living in society where many of us will still prefer to have our own small affordable EVs (like our cute little present day i-MiEVs) for most of our daily driving needs. I can't imagine a young parent, for instance, struggling to install/extract a child safety seat every time they visit the pediatrician or transport the kid to preschool. There are things that people tend to keep in their cars all the time and the habit of completely cleaning that stuff out before and after every vehicle trip just doesn't seem like a realistic proposition. It would be too much like living out of a different motel room every night for years at a time. But it would be nice to occasionally summon - on demand - a larger vehicle for a night on the town with a larger group of friends, for a longer distance trip out of town or packing up an oversize van with cardboard boxes when it's time to leave the little apartment and move into the new larger digs across town.
My idea for a new EV-oriented business in lieu of an independently-owned service facility? How about a network used car dealerships that sells EVs exclusively? Since many of the 1st generation EVs are now being leased and then returned to the dealership 2 or 3 years later, there tends to be a glut of them right now. But they're currently spread out. An enterprising small used car dealer could find themselves obtaining low mileage used EVs at wholesale costs regionally and have them all available in one or several places at reasonable retail prices. Sales people who have taken the time to educate themselves on what EVs are all about could add to the buying experience at these used EV emporiums. It's only a matter of time before you'll see a used car lot in a larger metro area with nothing but late model Leafs, i-MiEVs and i3s, save for a single odd and older gasoline car outcast being displayed . . . kind of the opposite situation that we now witness.
