Actually, electrics are a lot simpler, so relatively cheap battery swaps isn’t out of the question if they’re designed right.
Transmission is pretty much the only component I can think of that’s simpler. I have four motors (5 with ICE) instead of one. Lots more cooling lines. Ton of high voltage / high amperage wiring. And a ton of silicone chips that make all that work together.
I agree that you can build an electric car simpler than an ICE car, but there are no real world examples other than a few unique cases like Edison Motors.
I feel like maybe you’re counting components wrong. An ICE has… I actually don’t know, but a lot of moving parts. It looks really hard to pull a combustion car apart to swap anything major. I know less about the cooling, I admit.
Hybrids do not count here, they actually add together the complexity of both.
I went to school for electro-mechanics, electric drive trains are much simpler. The electronics have a couple of details, but they are basically scaled up computer psu-s. Biggest problem for car manufacturers is probably designing a different car then the ones they made before. Bateries are the most expensive part and should degrade faster then the motors (decades), maybe even electronics (10 years, depends on design).
But yea cars have gotten too expensive in the last 15(?) years.
Why are you getting into the whole powertain & drivetain? I was just talking about the goddamn battery!