An electric car, for all intents and purposes should be substantially easier to repair, diagnose, and work on, but manufacturers are doing things like using proprietary signaling protocols, locking out third party parts, and putting complex software in the place of simple and reliable hardware. Electric cars aren’t new, they’ve been around since the 90s and it was perfectly possible to create one without the “smart” nonsense we are seeing today. My car doesn’t need to report my location to a database or have a manufacturer kill-switch and it doesn’t make one a Luddite for feeling that way.

The 1890s, to be precise...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Parker_Electric_ca...

Case in point, I have a former high school friend who runs a farm that’s about 50 acres as his primary business - without major machinery. They have quads and pickup trucks, but most applications where one would use a tractor are now done with animal power.

The result? It’s actually cheaper to operate as grass is cheaper than diesel. He’s not getting rich, but makes as decent living.

That's not the main problem with newer cars. The problem is that much of the required knowledge is intentionally kept proprietary so there is no way for regular people to fix it regardless of how much they want to learn it.