A 100k miles with no repairs, except that necessary from abuse. It is important to note that according the the timeline given in the article, those 100k miles were put on in less than 2 years. I believe there are a number of cars that could go 100k miles without repairs. I have almost 130k miles on my almost 7 year old Outback, and there have been no repairs. Preventative maintenance? Sure. A lot of maintenance in the form of oil changes, brake fluid changes, CVT fluid, diff fluid, brake pads, tires. A new battery. But no repair.
(Oops! I forgot about body work because deer seem to be attracted to my Outback. But still, no repairs related to reliability.)
I believe you could put 100k miles in only 2 years, and end up with no repairs on most any Toyota, except the trucks, most any Mazda, a Subaru, a Lexus, an Acura. And many others. Most cars built today are well built enough to go 100k miles with only regular maintenance.
I will admit that one real attraction to an electric car, to me at least, is the reduced maintenance. I love the idea of eliminating oil changes, diff fluid changes, tranny fluid changes. No more O2 sensors to ever replace. No cleaning the mass air flow sensor, or the throttle body. No air cleaner. I do think the author's estimate of savings is quite inflated. However, a lot of people get their oil changes more often than the manufacturer's recommendations, so I guess $1000 for oil changes may be fair if you use a 5k oci and take it to the dealer.
As much as I get great satisfaction from doing my own maintenance, I would be thrilled to have to do less of it.
Frankly, he is very lucky that the repairs he did confess to were inexpensive. From what I have read and seen, Tesla is not known for reasonable priced repairs.