EVs ‘most likely type of car to break down'

Telegraph

18-06-2025

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the most likely type of car to break down, a survey of tens of thousands of motorists has found.
A poll of just under 30,000 car owners found that just over one in 10, or 10.9 per cent, had broken down within the last two years.
Of those who gave their car's fuel type, about one in six (16.8 per cent) said the car they broke down in was an EV, What Car? magazine's latest Reliability Survey found.
This was a higher breakdown rate than for petrol, diesel or hybrid cars whose owners responded to the survey.
Other data gathered by the magazine revealed that owners of diesel-engined cars are most likely to report a fault, with 31 per cent of its readers doing so last year, although that figure has declined from 50 per cent in 2022.
The findings come after Jakob Pfaudler, the AA's chief executive, warned of a 'common misconception that electric vehicles break down less frequently than petrol and diesel vehicles'.
Mr Pfaudler said in April: 'Currently, at least, that is not the case. The breakdown rate is, in fact, slightly higher for electric vehicles than for internal combustion-engine vehicles.'
What Car?'s findings on reliability were based on about 17,300 drivers who gave their vehicles' fuel type, out of the 30,000 surveyed.
Some 15.4 per cent of diesel drivers, 14.1 per cent of hybrid (petrol-electric) car owners and 10.7 per cent of petrol-powered motorists reported that they had been left stranded in their cars at some point since 2022.
In total, around 7,700 petrol drivers responded, along with 5,100 diesel drivers, just under 2,900 hybrid owners and 1,600 EV motorists.
In its survey, What Car? also asked drivers how often their broken-down cars had to be towed away, as opposed to receiving roadside repairs that got them running again.
About two in five EVs had to be taken elsewhere to be fixed, the magazine found, compared with just 30pc of petrol cars.
However, electric car advocates suggested that the survey's findings lacked rigour.
Ben Nelmes, the chief executive of the consultancy New Automotive, said: 'Perhaps a better datapoint for the UK would be the MOT failure rate – after all, when a vehicle fails its MOT (and isn't remedied at the centre) then there's likely to be something fairly wrong with it.
'Battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) have a lower failure rate than petrol and diesel vehicles of comparable ages, except BEV and petrol vehicles that are three-years-old, where the failure rate is essentially the same,' he added.
Ginny Buckley, the chief executive of Electrifying, an electric car buying advice website, said: 'The What Car? survey flies in the face of data from companies like Start Rescue, who last year reported that EVs are 59 per cent less likely to break down than their petrol or diesel counterparts,' she said.
'But when they do, the issues are often relatively minor – things like tyres, wheels, or the 12-volt battery – much the same as traditional cars. Expensive mechanical failures, which are common in older internal combustion engine vehicles, are rare thanks to the EV's simpler engineering and fewer moving parts.'