Between 145 thousand and 193 thousand kilometres, 16.5% of the electric cars examined did not pass the periodic check. For petrol cars of the same age and with similar mileage, the share rose to 22.1%. After exceeding 193 thousand kilometres, the distance increases further: 16% versus 23.5%. The odometer continues to make a certain impression, the data a little less so.
The numbers come from an analysis of 47.4 million MOT tests, commissioned by the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), the British rental and leasing industry association, and carried out by transport research organization New AutoMotive using official data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. The sample covers Great Britain and includes checks carried out between July 2024 and July 2026.
The MOT is the British test of a vehicle’s roadworthiness, comparable in many ways to our MOT: checking brakes, tyres, steering, suspension, lights and other safety requirements. In Great Britain, for most cars, it arrives in the third year after first registration and every year thereafter.
The difference begins to be seen around 100 thousand kilometres
The interesting data appears when age and mileage are considered together. Simply looking at all the tests, in fact, the electric ones seem to start with a huge advantage: 13.5% of failures compared to 21.4% of the petrol ones. Not a very useful comparison, because the British electric fleet is much younger: the electric car subjected to MOT is on average 4.6 years old, the petrol one is 10.4.
Even just checking the years is not enough. At three years old, for example, electric cars arrive at their first MOT with a median mileage of around 43,500 kilometres, compared to just under 33,000 for petrol cars. Many come from corporate fleets, leasing and services that go a long way.
When the authors compare cars in the same age range, between three and eight years, and with similar mileages, the initial differences almost disappear. Between 32 thousand and 64 thousand kilometers the failure percentages are very close. Then the paths separate. Between approximately 97 thousand and 145 thousand kilometres, 16.1% of electric vehicles fail the MOT compared to 19.1% of petrol ones. Between 145 thousand and 193 thousand kilometers the rate goes to 16.5% versus 22.1%. Above that threshold, electric ones remain around 16%, while petrol ones reach 23.5%.
A possible explanation also lies in the simpler mechanics of electric traction. As the kilometers increase, combustion cars accumulate potential problems on components that an electric simply doesn’t have, starting with the exhaust and emission control systems. In the report, over 145 thousand kilometres, 3.8 defects related to exhaust and emissions are recorded for every 100 petrol tests. On electric ones, inevitably, zero.
Tires are their Achilles heel
Electric cars, however, do not leave the inspection with a spotless report card. Tire defects are approximately 1.8 times more frequent than petrol ones. Among vehicles with over 145 thousand kilometres, the analysis records 9.4 defects per 100 MOTs for electric vehicles and 5.4 for petrol vehicles. The authors link the difference above all to the weight of the batteries, to the immediately available torque and, in electric models derived from old platforms created for combustion engines, to the design of the chassis.
It goes differently for suspensions. The data collected does not show the feared increase in problems simply due to the greater weight: between 97 thousand and 145 thousand kilometres, 4.7 defects appear every 100 checks on electric vehicles, compared to 6.1 on petrol ones.
Then there is a curiosity about the brakes. Regenerative braking greatly reduces the work entrusted to discs and calipers, so much so that defects are significantly fewer on the most used electric ones. However, when the car ages by covering just a few kilometres, the effect can be reversed: traditional brakes are used little and can suffer from corrosion. From ten years onwards, in the low mileage group analysed, brake defects on electric cars exceed those on petrol cars.
The MOT doesn’t say how the battery is doing
An important boundary is needed here. Passing the MOT better does not automatically mean having a battery in better condition, nor does it demonstrate that an electric one has fewer faults of any kind.
The British check does not measure the health of the battery, its loss of capacity, the performance of the on-board charger or the speed of fast charging. The database does not even record breakdowns that occur on the road, software problems or warranty interventions that do not coincide with an MOT. These are limits indicated by the authors of the report themselves.
For anyone looking at a used electric, therefore, mileage only tells part of the story. Maintenance history, tire condition and most importantly battery health remain separate checks.
What the 47.4 million British tests seriously call into question is an automatic mechanism as old as the second-hand market: many kilometers equals a mechanically fruitless car. At least during the roadworthiness checks, after around 100 thousand kilometres, the electric cars stop chasing. And they begin, rather clearly, to pass in front.
