Electric vehicles are 79% less reliable than traditional light passenger cars, and hybrids are even worse off with 146%, Consumer Reports has found in an extensive survey of owners. Most people highlighted Lexus, Toyota and MINI cars as reliable.
Compared to the owners of regular cars with combustion engines, people driving plug-in hybrids have complained about various issues 146% more often. All-electric cars weren’t much better with a 79% higher complaint rate. On the upside, mild hybrids were found 30% less prone to failures. Electric pickup trucks garnered the most negative feedback of all vehicle types.
In its study, Consumer Reports points out that there were certain welcome exceptions. For instance, the Toyota RAV4 Prime and the Kia Sportage showed a higher-than-average reliability despite having a complex plug-in hybrid powertrain.
The most frequent complaints of EV owners are those targeting the powertrain, the charging system and the battery pack. The authors of the study point out that all of the above are so-called ‘growth issues’ and may go away as automakers accumulate the necessary statistics.
As we said above, Lexus, Toyota and MINI were found the most trouble-free car brands. The top-10 list goes on to mention Acura, Honda, Subaru, Mazda, Porsche, BMW and Kia, in that particular order.