Owners of electric vehicles are more likely to be involved in traffic accidents than motorists driving cars with an internal combustion engine (ICE). This conclusion was reached by experts from Lero, a research center at the University of Limerick in Ireland and the University of Barcelona in Spain. The report was published in the scientific journal Accident Analysis & Prevention (AAP).
The study used telematics data from 125 million commercial fleet trips involving 14,642 vehicles registered from January 2022 to October 2022 in the Netherlands. A dataset of insurance claims for the same period was also used.
Through analysis of insurance claims and on-board sensor data, the team identified the following factors. First, drivers of electric vehicles and hybrids behave differently on the highway than drivers of traditional vehicles.
In addition, more faults are detected in electric vehicles than in gasoline and diesel vehicles. And repairing electric vehicles costs 6.7% more than repairing vehicles with internal combustion engines.
Lero noted that owners of electric and hybrid cars account for 4% and 6% more accidents, respectively, than drivers of gasoline and diesel cars.
