Electric vehicles have always been considered more reliable than petrol or diesel vehicles. After all, electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, so not much breaks down. However, a new study finds that electric vehicles break down even more often than conventional combustion vehicles.
A new survey by the British consumer association Who? shows that owners of petrol or diesel cars will experience fewer problems in the first four years than those of electric cars.
A total of 48,000 people were interviewed. Serious problems were reported by 39% of electric vehicle owners in the first four years of ownership, compared to just 19% of petrol vehicle owners. Of diesel car owners, 29% of respondents had problems.
Electric vehicles are not only less reliable, they also take much longer to repair. Most of the time, software issues arise and take an average of five days to resolve. It takes an average of three days to repair cars with petrol engines and four days for diesel engines.
The most unreliable brand of electric vehicles was Tesla, and the most reliable was Kia e-Niro.