I ordered a Ford Maverick Hybrid last year in October. Things that have been constraining items for Ford in that last year: Spray in Bed Liner
Co-Pilot 360 (Blind spot monitoring and such which is on both regular gas vehicles and hybrids)
Luxury Package (Again available across both gas and hybrid, I believe because of heated seats)
Tonneau Cover (Again available across both gas and hybrid)
Mud Flaps
Overall EVs are mostly new vehicles, new vehicles tend to require new parts so the supply chains are younger and less robust. Older EVs such as the Chevy Bolt seem to be available right now.
I am not saying an ICE is a better idea. I'm saying that an EV is, by some definition, unreliable from the drawing board onwards.
To really put the cat among the pigeons - does this make it, in a practical sense, less sustainable?
Largely the main issue is reliability has nothing to do with it. It is all producibility. Currently every car company is struggling with producing vehicles ICE or EV. Nobody is asking is the Ford Bronco sustainable? Even though the wait time is longer than the Ioniq 5. Vehicles that people are not as excited about like the Prius or the Bolt are available right now.
Also in reference to you links, gas vehicles are also largely delayed there. And from my experience there are Bolts and priuses sitting on the lots in the US, now they are charging markups on them but that is the current market. Not sure what the situation is in Canada.
AFAIK the spray-in bedliner is a physical component.
Tonneau cover, depends on the model. Mine, there was a slight delay, but FWIW was a 'rolling' (i.e. no electronics) style.
Mud flaps, pretty sure are not electronic.
As another 'ancillary' item, wiring harnesses have been hard to come by, which has an impact on both ICE and EVs. Electronic, but not a silicon supply constrained component per se.
My point still stands - a dependency on electronics, and especially cutting-edge electronics, makes you dependendent on a complex and fragile global ecosystem.
Good luck doing that with an electric vehicle.
Come to think of it, a video series about bootstrapping a 19th century machine shop from a 15th century blacksmith's shop would be extremely interesting.
I believe the first EV might even predate the first ICE vehicle.
Reference: https://www.energy.gov/timeline/timeline-history-electric-ca....
https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advice/who-invented-the-fir....
It sure is. Given a year in my garage, I bet I can make a more useful, power-converting device from scratch using internal combustion tech than using electronics.
>I believe the first EV might even predate the first ICE vehicle.
I also believe that is true. What's old is new again - time to get rid of those "dinosuar tech" ICEs and move on to...the even older EV?
Somehow electric delivery trucks are the new hotness, yet here in the UK, (lead-acid powered) milk floats are also a symbol of a byegone age.
I haven never heard of somebody talking about the "reliability" of a car, or any other durable good, in reference to the reliability of its supply chain. Saying that a product has a fragile supply chain is not a valid counterargument to somebody touting its reliability.
"EVs have an especially fragile supply chain" could be a true statement on its own, but "EVs have a fragile supply chain, therefore they're unreliable" is only true if we use a different definition of "reliability" than people typically use in the context you gave.
They can even make it go to 11 on the performance spec.