One of the postal employees at Reddit is having trouble with the new NGDV ‘duck truck’. Every time he reaches out and opens a metal mailbox he gets a big static shock.
Is it electric motor vs gas motor? Not the most likely cause. Electric motors don’t necessarily build up a static charge.
More likely the inner part (seat, steering wheel, dashboard) is electrically isolated from the chassis by rubber mounts to cushion vibration, and part of the circuitry treats the inner part as a ground when it isn’t properly strapped to the chassis. This is a fairly common fault in ordinary cars, where it only causes odd glitches like the radio coming on when you hit the turn signal. In an EV, with much higher voltages and currents sloshing around, it could get serious.
Polistra's Mill 