Hybrid Horror – You are 3x More Likely to Die in a Hybrid Vehicle than a Gasoline Vehicle

Essay by Eric Worrall

Recently released UK government stats suggest Hybrid vehicles are significantly more dangerous to vehicle occupants than gasoline vehicles.

Death rates in hybrids ‘three times higher than petrol cars’ as road safety experts call for inquiry

By GABRIEL MILLARD-CLOTHIER 

PUBLISHED: 10:33 AEDT, 28 December 2025 | UPDATED: 19:32 AEDT, 28 December 2025 

Road safety experts were calling for an inquiry on Saturday night as it was revealed motorists are three times more likely to die in hybrids than in petrol cars.

A total of 122 people died in hybrid car crashes last year, compared with 777 in accidents involving petrol cars, according to Department for Transport figures analysed by The Mail on Sunday.

But as hybrids are outnumbered by almost 20 to 1 on Britain’s roads by petrol models, that means hybrids are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash.

Experts believe the higher death rates could be explained by hybrids’ combination of petrol engines and batteries and electric motors, which can be harder to control and more prone to fires.

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The cars’ batteries may also be to blame. They can be damaged by the heat of the engine, which burns at extremely hot temperatures, making them more liable to set ablaze.

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Hybrids were found by a leading insurer of company cars, Tusker, to burst into flames at higher rates than others. Among their fleet of 30,000 cars, hybrid vehicles had an almost three times’ higher risk with 3,475 fires per 100,000​​​​.  

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Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15416671/Death-rates-hybrids-three-times-leading-road-safety-experts.html

If anyone has a link to the original report please post in comments.

It makes sense that hybrids are more dangerous than other vehicle categories. While gasoline fires are probably more likely than a battery vehicle fire, I strongly suspect EV fires are less survivable. That big battery is a mobile thermite bomb.

Mix the higher probability of a gasoline fire and hot engine components with a battery, and I suspect you are combining the worst of both worlds.

Since the report focussed on Britain, it is also possible local conditions in Britain contributed to this risk. Frequent wet weather with lots of loose road salt in winter, poorly maintained roads, a lack of undercover parking, and in winter extreme cycles from freezing cold to hot might all play a part.

I once survived a gasoline vehicle fire, it was nasty, but I had a good minute to escape the vehicle – I had time to pull over, safely get out of the vehicle through the passenger door, and stroll a hundred yards from the vehicle before the fire reached an intensity which would have been life threatening. After the fire was put out by the fire crew, I even managed to recover and salvage my plastic laptop computer. It was scorched and the battery was destroyed, but after a month of drying out it actually booted and survived enough for me to recover my files.

Battery fires are a little more spectacular. From MGUY;

Combine a gasoline fire with a battery fire, and you have a potential recipe for disaster.

And it might not even have to be a fire. Gasoline engine components frequently operate normally at temperatures above the ignition temperature of Lithium batteries, so even say a small leak in the exhaust system might be enough to cause a battery explosion.

There was a brief moment when I considered buying a hybrid. After Covid gasoline prices in Australia shot up, and hybrids started to look attractive. But let’s just say I’m going to defer that purchase decision.