- Insurance claims suggest that EVs are in different types of low-speed crashes
- EVs are more likely to end up in the rear, less likely to have frontal damage
- Combustion vehicles and EVs lose out completely at the same rate
EVs are often involved in different types of collisions than internal combustion vehicles, data from Mitchell International show, with a single-pedal drive system likely contributing to this.
Mitchell, which provides technology to the auto insurance and collision repair industries, has previously reported that EV collision repair costs are higher than those for gasoline vehicles. Now the company is looking at the types of fender-bender EVs that are typically involved in internal combustion vehicles.
In a press release published on Wednesday, the company said its data reflects that EVs are more likely to sustain rear-end damage than vehicles with internal combustion, those crashes accounted for 35.9% of EV crashes and 27.5% of vehicle crashes with internal combustion, respectively. Combustion vehicles have a higher frequency of frontal collisions, at 31.5%, compared to 25.8% for EVs.
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Mitchell believes this likely comes down to two key factors. Another is that EVs tend to be newer, which means they are more likely to have the latest front-end collision avoidance technology. The company also quoted “different braking dynamics” of EVs in single pedal modewhich may result in a very rapid deceleration that is not prepared for the drivers behind the vehicles.
Although collisions involving a forward impact are 40% more expensive on average than those involving a rear impact, EVs remain very expensive to maintain overall, according to Mitchell. The company's data shows that in Q3, auto insurance claims in the US averaged $5,560 for EVs, $5,229 for EVs, plug-in hybrids, $4,426 for mild hybrids, and $4,741 for non-combined combustion vehicles.
That continues the trend from Q2, when Mitchell found that EV maintenance costs were 20% higher than other vehicles. High maintenance costs were also among the reasons cited by Hertz for scaling back its EV plans.
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A recent report from Mitchell offered a hint as to why this might be the case. Although repairs require approximately the same percentage of parts, BEV versus ICE, BEV repairs require 90% original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts, while ICE models require 64% OEM parts. The rest comes from the aftermarket, probably at a lower price than OEM parts.
EVs and combustion vehicles written off as a total loss at about the same amount-9.9% of all requests. The average market value of EVs declared a total loss of $32,718, slightly closer to the $31,070 average for 2021 or newer gasoline vehicles, which Mitchell noted are very similar to EVs in complexity and maintenance costs.
The high cost of EV maintenance is well documented, but now we're also seeing hints that the unique driving dynamics of EVs may play a role in the frequency of crashes. In addition to Mitchell citing single-pedal driving as a cause of rear-end accidents, a report published last month found that EV drivers are more likely to be involved in accidents, and also pointed out that drivers' behavior changed when they switched to EVs. .