After all, what are the most reliable cars: electric or gasoline?

Os electric cars they are increasingly present on the roads, with an acceleration of sales in particular this year due to rising fuel prices. But how do they behave in terms of reliability compared to combustion models?

An analysis the British Association of Car Rental and Leasing (BVRLA) to 47.4 million MOT tests (annual car inspection) concluded that, with the accumulation of use, the electrics have a propensity to considerably lower failures than the equivalent of gasoline.

With low mileage, the differences are short (after 32,000 to 64,000 kilometers, there were breakdowns in 12 percent of electrics and 11.7 percent of gasoline cars). The pattern begins to change after 60,000 kilometers. And change is fixed, since the rate of electrical failure begins to stabilize by about 16 percent, while in the case of gasoline continues to rise.

Walked between 145 and 193,000 kilometers, the electrics are less than 25 percent less likely to fail than equivalent gasoline cars in terms of age and mileage.

Electric vehicles last longer on the roads

On the other hand, at the age of 15, more than 94 percent of electric vehicles returned for a mandatory annual inspection over the next 30 months, while the percentage in the case of gasoline barely exceeds 88 percent.

Equivale, according to the work report, that 5.4 percent of the electrics stop circulating, against 11.9 percent of the gasoline cars. With one exception: there may be vehicles that leave the market because they are exported and not necessarily because they are slaughtered or declared to be so.

Electric vehicles also showed a tendency to accumulate, on average, more kilometres annually at a age of 12 years.

The “reverse of the medal”

Even if they tend much less to break down with the accumulation of the kilometers compared to the equivalent gasoline models, the electrics do not overcome them at all.

The most flagrant case is the tyres, by registering about 1.8 times more problems – especially the first electrics based on platforms derived from combustion engines.

But as for suspension, they behave better, with fewer failures – such as braking between vehicles with the highest mileage. However, older electrics, with little mileage, tend to accuse more friction brake defects.

There's an important data missing

This analysis of BVRLA does not consider the degradation of health and battery capacity – essential part of electric cars. This is because mandatory inspection in the UK only examines components with more direct impact on road safety (brakes, suspension, steering, lights, tyres).

However, according to the General Battery Performance Index, between eight and 12 years of age, the health status of the median battery was 85 percent – in a study covering 8,000 cars of more than 30 brands.