That's very young for mechanical equipment. Traditional cars , washing machines and fridges could be operated for several decades with little maintenance.

> Even ignoring the life of the cells themselves

That was the point of my argument, though. That a great part of the car's production cost is due to the battery, which has a rather limited lifespan.

And maintenance is definitely required along the way and will just keep climbing

I have no clue about such statistics, but in any case they don't mean the car itself becomes useless after that period.

> And maintenance is definitely required

Yes but that's an entirely reasonable cost, at least compared to new cars. Even if you need to change significant parts of your car every few years (which is usually not the case), it would cost you a few thousand euros at most. A budget of, let's say 1000€/year maintenance (high estimate) is still an order of magnitude cheaper than buying a new car (20-100k€). That 1000€ yearly budget estimate is a very high estimate which accounts for expensive parts to change at most once every decade.

Of course, many people who buy second-hand cars will just buy another second-hand car for 100-1000€ instead of changing expensive/hard-to-reach parts for over 1000€. It all depends on how easy finding the parts are, and whether you or a person close to you has the equipment and knowledge to change the part for free (or in exchange for other services).