Electric cars caught up and overtook cars with the ICE in terms of durability and reliability, scientists found out

On the basis of hundreds of millions of records on the inspections of vehicles collected over many years, in the UK, scientists concluded about achieving parity in the service life of electric vehicles and even their superiority over machines with internal combustion on gasoline and diesel fuel. There was a fracture that makes the operation of electric vehicles profitable in all respects and, first of all, from the position of transition to a harmless economy.

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«Electric cars with batteries provide significant environmental advantages, especially as Europe switches to more renewable energy sources. Despite the higher initial emissions during production, the durable electric car can quickly compensate for its carbon mark, contributing to the fight against climate change, which makes it a more stable option in the long term, ”said Robert Elliot, Professor of the University of Birmingham and Robert Elliot) .

The work that is published in the journal Nature Energy and is freely available for study, is based on more than 300 million records of car inspections in the UK from 2005 to 2022. Not only brands of machines, but also the condition of components and assemblies for different years of operation have been studied.

The very first electric cars with traction batteries were less reliable than cars with ICE, but this changed quickly. Fast technological progress allowed new electric cars to achieve a comparable service life, even with more intense use than that of gasoline or diesel fuel cars. In particular, electric cars increased reliability with a simultaneous reduction in the likelihood of refusing 12 %each subsequent year, while in gasoline machines the probability of refusal decreased by 6.7 %, and in diesel – by 1.9 %.

The service life of modern electric vehicles, as the researchers calculated, now amounts to 18.4 years, and the mileage can reach the impressive 200 thousand km, which exceeds this indicator in traditional gasoline cars with ICE.

The authors of the work, the authors of the work, called the Tesla brand most effective in terms of long -term operation by an electric car. Among cars with gasoline ICE, the Audi brand was the leader in durability. In the category of cars with diesel ICE, Skoda came first. The authors emphasize that during the study there was no conflict of interest.

«Our conclusions provide consumers with reliable data to make reasonable decisions on the purchase of vehicles, while politicians can use our information to form rules and incentives that contribute to the introduction of durable and environmentally friendly vehicles, as well as in -tensional planning of their disposal at the end of the service life ” – summarize scientists.