A 47 Million Car Inspection Study Just Busted A Big EV Myth

"An EV battery needs recharging too often. The car's engine isn't powerful enough. They're not as fast as standard cars." It's easy to fall into the same cycles of criticism when it comes to electric vehicles, but EV haters don't always get it right. A recent analysis by consulting British consulting firm New AutoMotive, commissioned by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association has now busted the myth that EVs don't last as long as gasoline-powered cars, using publicly available annual inspection data from the United Kingdom's Department for Transport/Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.

The study, which you can download over at Electrek, found that once vehicles passed the 40,000-mile mark, gasoline cars began showing higher failure rates than EVs. In fact, when vehicles reached 120,000 miles, 23.5% of gasoline-powered cars had dropped out of the dataset altogether when compared with 16% of EVs. Overall, gasoline cars were 47% more likely to have failed by that mileage marker. This was the case even though EVs were typically driven more miles each year than their gasoline counterparts.

Researchers analyzed millions of MOT test records from U.K. government records. MOT stands for the Ministry of Transportation and is the U.K.'s required annual vehicle roadworthiness test. For their analysis, researchers checked how likely vehicles were to return for another MOT test, with those that didn't return considered to have left the road. They compared EVs and gasoline-powered cars based on both mileage and age to see how their roadworthiness changed over time.

These results become more interesting when you look at the individual systems that researchers analyzed. EVs weren't staying on the road longer because of any one component. For example, their suspension systems held up better than those of gasoline cars across different mileage levels. They also had fewer brake-related problems, which researchers believed was due to the greater use of regenerative braking.

Another reason why EVs can hold up well over time is the fact that they have fewer components that need ongoing attention. An all-electric vehicle's battery, motor, and related electronics require little to no routine maintenance. It also doesn't have as many fluids to change along with fewer moving parts as a gasoline-powered vehicle. This doesn't mean that an EV is completely maintenance-free, as the battery will wear out eventually and some systems that use liquid cooling can require periodic checks.

However, according a different study cited by the EPA concerning about 15,000 EVs, only 2.5% of those vehicles had their battery replaced because of a failure. The numbers were even lower among newer vehicles, with EVs from the 2016 model year and later showing a battery failure rate below 0.5%. So while EV batteries can still lose some of their original range over time, outright failure requiring full replacement appears to be uncommon.