An analysis of 300 million United Kingdom Ministry of Transport test records, which tries to estimate the ‘health’ of every vehicle on UK roads between 2005 and 2022 and determine potential vehicle longevity (basically survival rates for different powertrains) has concluded that electric vehicles now match the lifespans of conventional counterparts and may even be more reliable.

This is in contrast to real-world data showing that early electric cars were far less reliable than combustion. It may be the generous government mandates and corporate subsidies that all taxpayers fund but the result is that they have demonstrated rapid improvement in reliability. Each year of production has seen a 12% lower likelihood of failure (hazard rate), compared to 6.7% for petrol and 1.9% for diesel vehicles. Obviously combustion engines have been common for over a century so they were already reliable.

Regardless of their advocacy framing, powertrains are hard to mess up in all cars, they conclude electric cars now have a lifespan of 18.4 years and can travel up to 124,000 miles, surpassing traditional petrol cars in mileage.



Tesla leads the way

Tesla ranks first for longevity of electric cars while Audi and Skoda lead in gas and diesel.

If progress continues and government subsidizes more - Norway pays you up to $27,000 to buy an electric car, because it's more lucrative to export their oil than use it - they won't just be a niche option for the wealthy. The only concern will be range and charging time, especially in cold weather. 

If more countries begin to switch to nuclear, or at least rich ones let the 2,000,000,000 billion poor people still burning wood and dung for fuel in homes get clean coal, electricity won't be a negative for the environment, as it is now due to conventional sources needed to generate it.

With nuclear, the higher emissions from making electric cars can be offset

Trillions of dollars spent for solar and wind have shown that they are not reliable enough. They have reduced conventional energy by 0.1% after 15 years of mandates and subsidies. The US government looks to be ending its 30-year moratorium on nuclear, which will allow technological prowess to quickly roll out 4th generation nuclear that has no risk and great benefit.

If electricity is affordable, politicians won't have to force consumers into buying electric cars and companies into making them. Affordable electricity, along with reliability, will make new charging stations worthwhile and the private sector will build them.

Then entire fleets can be replaced as they reach the end of their lives.