If you read the article you posted, you’d see it say that the EV problems referenced have to do with paint, trim, climate, as opposed to engine, transmission, etc. In other words, not major issues.

“Tesla Motors, the market leader in EV sales, continues to have issues with body hardware, paint and trim, and climate system on its models, but are not as problematic for motor, charging, and battery. At number 14, Tesla is the second-highest ranked domestic automaker in CR’s brand rankings. The Model 3 and Model Y have average reliability while all the other Tesla models–the S, and X–are all below average.“

This has been my experience too. In 5 years I have not had any major issue with my electric car preventing me from driving it other than a flat tire. There have been a couple minor other issues, such as a window not automatically closing all the way and a software issue with the display but they were minor and tesla came to my house to fix it for free while the car was in my driveway. I don’t think there’s enough room in this comment box to type out all the major problems I had with my previous ICE vehicle in the 5 years before that.

I also have experienced much lower maintenance numbers with ICEs than what are being quoted. I think it's a combination of the models I pick (only those manufactured in Japan) and the fact that I buy new and drive for 8-10 years so I'm the single owner.

My 2019 Santa Fe has needed oil changes and 0 other maintenance in 5 years/50k miles.

I do the oil changes myself in about 30 minutes and they cost me about $30 using synthetic oil(costco) and OEM filter. So, I have spent $300 in 5 years on maintenance. Still original tires.

The people claiming expensive maintenance on ICE cars DID NOT follow what manufacturer recommends but the dealer, who have an incentive to offer extra services.

It's hard to decide based on any kind of published data because so much chance is involved. And it's hard to decide based on first-hand experience because you can't compare a new and 10-year old car. In my case I figured the unexpected maintenance is unlikely to be worse, and I know the expected maintenance will be better.

Well, either we believe the data, or we believe stories (true or not) that people tell us (EVs are more reliable). EVs compared to ICEs are still in the early adopter phase in terms of ironing the kinks out. We've been doing ICE vehicles for what, 100 years?

I don’t doubt the data, but the question is how to use it. When it comes to long tail events like breakdowns there is a big difference between an individual purchasing one car and a large fleet owner purchasing in bulk where the law of large numbers helps remove the variance.

In my anecdotal case, I traded a potentially larger but still small probability of a major breakdown for a guaranteed better maintenance schedule (no oil changes, less brake/rotor work) and no gas station visits. We’ll see how it goes!