A Consumers Reports survey finds electric vehicles (EVs) are less reliable than internal-combustion-engine (ICE) cars.
Around 330,000 vehicles participated in the Consumer Reports survey. Consumer Reports revealed the survey results on Wednesday during an event with the Automotive Press Association. According to the Consumer Reports 2023 auto reliability survey, electric vehicles have 79% more problems than ICE cars.
The performance of plug-in hybrids did not fair any better than EVs. The survey revealed that plug-in hybrids had 146% more flaws than fossil fuel vehicles, twice as many as electric vehicles. Hybris scored the best among new energy vehicles, with 26% fewer issues than ICE cars.
Jake Fisher, the senior director of auto testing at Consumer Reports, tried to explain the survey’s results. Fisher hinted that automakers’ new technology in electric vehicles might have issues and lower reliability.
“The longer a vehicle or a technology is in production, the more the bugs are worked out. The automakers that have produced EVs earlier, they’re improving the reliability,” Fisher told Automotive News.
Fisher’s explanation mostly applied to legacy automakers. The Consumer Reports survey found that traditional OEMs still had difficulty charging batteries—a technology that would be foreign to them as experienced ICE manufacturers. Meanwhile, the new automaker—focusing on all-electric vehicle production—faced issues with body hardware, paint, trim, and climate systems.
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