ADAC has measured 3.6 million breakdowns – electric cars are proving to be more reliable than cars with combustion engines.
Electric cars have fewer breakdowns than fossil-fuel cars – at least if you ask ADAC in Germany.
In their new crash statistics for 2025, which are based on a whopping 3.6 million calls in 2024, the latest figures show a clear trend: Electric cars are generally more reliable than gasoline and diesel cars.
According to ADAC , their roadside assistance has increasingly helped electric car owners. But this is not necessarily due to more problems with electric cars – rather, it is because there are now far more electric cars on German roads.
And for the first time, this provides a real basis for comparison between the two car types.
ADAC: Electric cars have fewer problems per car
When you look at figures from cars with registration years 2020, 2021 and 2022 – that is, cars two to four years old – a monster emerges.
Fossil cars had an average of 9.4 crashes per 1,000 cars in 2024. For electric cars, the figure was only 3.8.
The figures confirm a trend that was also observed in 2023. For cars from 2020 alone, electric cars had an average of 8.5 breakdowns per 1,000 cars, while fossil cars had a whopping 12.9.
It is in one area in particular that both electric and fossil-fueled cars fail the most: the classic 12-volt starter battery.
The starter battery is the culprit in almost half of all breakdowns
A whopping 44.9 percent of all problems in 2024 were due to problems with the 12-volt battery. For electric cars , a whopping 50 percent of breakdowns were due to a failing battery supply – often related to the low-voltage battery that controls the car's systems, and not the propulsion itself.
For fossil cars, the figure was 45 percent.
A major cause of battery problems in electric cars is that users activate the car more often via apps, which "wakes up" the car's electronics more frequently and thus discharges the battery faster than car manufacturers had expected.
Here are the most reliable models in ADAC statistics
ADAC has analyzed 159 model ranges across 20 car brands. Below is a selection of mid-range models with the lowest number of crashes per 1,000 cars from the 2022 model year:
- Audi A4: 0.4
- Tesla Model 3: 0.5
- Audi Q4 e-tron: 0.7
- Audi Q5: 0.8
- Tesla Model Y: 0.9
- VW ID.4: 1.0
- BMW 3 Series: 1.2
- BMW X3: 1.3
- Mercedes-Benz GLC: 1.5
- Skoda Enyaq: 1.4
Several of the electric cars – including the Tesla Model 3, Model Y and VW ID.4 – are at the top with very low crash rates. But so are traditional fossil-fuel cars like the Audi A4 and BMW X3.
This is where things are going the worst – and it's especially fossil fuel cars.
At the bottom we find mainly older fossil cars. But also a fairly new electric car, which is actually at the top! Among the models with the most breakdowns per 1,000 cars from 2022 are:
- Hyundai Ioniq 5 (electric): 22.4
- Toyota RAV4: 18.4
- Opel Insignia: 17.2
- Ford Mondeo: 23.2
- Ford S-MAX: 39.1
- SEAT Alhambra: 18.1
- VW Sharan: 21.6
Both Toyota and Opel stand out negatively. The Toyota RAV4 had a crash rate of 18.4 in 2022, and it increases sharply over the years – up to 45.2 for cars from 2020.
This is a remarkably poor result, especially since Toyota has historically had a reputation for reliability. We will look at this dip in Toyota's reputation in more detail in a separate article.
Why electric cars perform better
According to ADAC, it is mainly about the construction. An electric car has fewer moving parts. The engine often consists of only a few parts – in contrast to the combustion engine's complex assembly of pistons, valves, turbos, etc. This causes more wear on several different parts.
Electric cars also don't have engine oil that can become contaminated and damage the engine. And because electric operation generates less heat than a combustion engine, there are fewer heat-related defects, says ADAC.
The future: More electric cars equal fewer breakdowns?
ADAC concludes that electric cars appear to be more reliable – at least in the car's first year of life. Whether this holds in the long term, future statistics will show. Most electric cars in the statistics are still relatively new.
But one thing is certain: The development is positive for electric car owners. But at the same time, the figures also show that German brands like Audi, BMW and Mercedes still deliver stable fossil-fuel cars – especially in the premium class.
