The annual car reliability survey by consumer magazine Which?, in the UK, has found that EVs spend more time off the road due to faults than their petrol and diesel counterparts. The finding illustrate how car makers are struggling to make new vehicle technology as reliable as tradition combustion engines cars. 

Which? is calling on car manufacturers to improve the reliability of their electric vehicles, with leading brand Tesla at the bottom of the owners survey.  

The survey was based on the experience of over 48,000 people and 56,853 cars. It found that electric cars are the most fault prone type of new car you can buy. Electric car owners suffer not only the highest average fault occurrence, but also the highest rate of cars breaking down or failing to start. Looking at cars aged up to four years old, close to a third (31.4%) of electric vehicle owners said they had experienced at least one fault in the 12 months prior to answering the annual car survey. Owners of faulty electric cars went, on average, just over five days without the use of their car while it was off the road to be fixed. The most commonly reported issues in electric cars related to software problems. 

However, the Kia e-Niro bucked the trend and proved to be the most reliable SUV on the market, even ahead of traditional fuel types, with only 6.2% of owners experiencing faults. By contrast, the Which?’s survey found that Tesla is the least reliable EV maker with 39% having some faults reported. 

Over all the survey also found that EVs spend an average of 5 days off the road per year due to faults compared to three days for petrol cars, with 3.8 for diesel and 3.9 for hybrids. This perhaps reflects that when an EV goes wrong it needs to return to a dealer and currently waiting times for parts and repairs may be extended. 

Which? cars expert Adrian Porter said, “Year on year, Tesla comes up as one the most fault prone, unreliable car manufacturers thanks to feedback from current owners. We’ve called on the brand for two years running to recall its Model S.” 

The survey does show that currently EVs are not the reliable option the manufacturers paint them to be, with tried and tested petrol, diesel and even hybrid technology proving to be far less fault prone. However, the experience of Kia e-Niro drivers does show that there is a path to greater reliability open to EV makers.