Essay by Eric Worrall
Something ugly might be happening in the Electric Vehicle repair space.
I was speaking today to an old friend who used to run a small rural smash repair shop in ____. Even though he no longer owns the shop, he still takes an interest in the business he founded, and regularly visits to see how they are getting on.
My friend was gushing about how much money his old business is making out of EV smash repairs, how much business his old shop is receiving from insurance companies. His old shop is one of the few shops in ____ which sent all their people on the right training, and now they are repairing lots of EV fender benders for big money.
So I asked “How are they addressing the battery fire risk?”
My friend replied “What battery fire risk?”.
My friend didn’t do the course, so maybe he just missed out on learning about that risk.
But then I got to thinking – who carries the liability if an EV is repaired, but the repair shop misses a subtle battery fault, which leads to severe injuries or deaths? After all, repair shops are supposed to do the job right.
A lot of smash repair shops won’t touch EVs because of the battery fire risk, as we’ve covered multiple times.
But what if some unscrupulous insurers have found a way to avoid those expensive write-offs? What if some of them are exploiting small independent smash repair shops who need the business, by encouraging them to put their employees through a few courses, so they can take on repair work the big players won’t touch? Work big players won’t touch, even if their employees have the right qualifications?
Why is a small rural smash repair shop being offered so much valuable EV repair work? Work which could be done much closer to home, in big city repair shops? I somehow doubt the explanation is the big players don’t want the money.
I know vehicle smash repairs might not be the easiest businesses to feel sympathy for, many of us have had at least one bad experience with a motor vehicle business which cooked the repair bill, or didn’t do their job. It is easy to say business managers and owners should do their own research, and if it looks too good to be true maybe it is too good to be true. But if you are running a struggling small business, then suddenly the insurance companies who you already deal with wave big money at you to get involved in a lucrative new sideline, its easy to see how time poor small business managers might overlook a few important details while grabbing for that EV repair contract lifeline, so they don’t have to tell people they’ve known for years that they no longer have a job.
I have no proof this is happening, but in my opinion the situation stinks. I suggested to my friend he should advise the new business owner to talk to a lawyer, and go through all the insurance contracts and terms of business, including the repair shop liability insurance contract.
If you have a friend who runs a small smash repair shop, check in with them to see if they’ve been offered a valuable new line of business. Because if my theory is right, some small business owners might be about to have their lives ruined.
No facts here. Just Eric’s mind wandering.
Well, Much like Climate Scientists articles published in ?Reputable? Journals, he did say “Might”!
He even used the infamous word “could” beloved by climatistas.
No counter facts either…and that’s a Fact!
There are no facts to counter. All Eric has is a repair shop that has trained in EV repair, and is now doing very well. As Eric says, the natural explanation is that they are good at it (and the demand is growing). The rest is all in Eric’s mind.
Hi Nick.
Do I remember correctly that a while back, you told us you don’t own a car of any sort?
If so, why the sudden interest in what certain car owners might face as far as repairs are concerned?
Do you have some sort of ideological bent as far as cars are concerned?
If Nick doesn’t want one, you can’t have one.
Apparently…
There’s a Vast Difference between the phrases…
No Counter Facts
And
No Facts to Counter.
So…you have no facts to counter Eric’s claims then!
Hey Nick, how about addressing the fact big smash repair shops refuse to fix EV’s…
The facts are a small independent rural repair shop is being flooded with business the big boys won’t touch, business which is saving insurance companies a lot of money.
It might be they’re just really good at their job. But I thought it reasonable to explore other possible explanations.
Too abstract. Nick can’t assign numbers and put it into an equation.
Maybe he can model it.
Your warning the person about the legal liabilities that the small shop could have is not unreasonable nor is it being paranoid, as Nick has hinted at.
Surely the answer is for the panel shop to contract for mechanical and body repairs only, requiring the electrics to be checked out by a manufacturers dealers shop
I suggested something like that, but said “get a lawyer to look at the options”.
Problem there.
Some (many?) of the cheap Chinese EV brands have no physical after-market servicing presence anywhere in countries like Australia.
All they offer apparently are Zoom-type ‘chats’ to talk through the symptoms, then send a software fix / upgrade directly to the vehicle’s control systems.
(and isn’t that a worry in itself?)
Not sure why anyone would buy a cheap Chinese EV unless the buyer is willing to do all the repair work themselves
This is certainly an issue identified in the UK, with both EV and petrol vehicles from Chinese brands new to the market. The lack of spare parts and the lack of local expertise to fix electronic faults in particular can mean damaged or faulty vehicles taking ages to fix. If the insurance policy includes provision for a hire car while the damaged vehicle is off the road, the insurance company is faced with a potentially very large hire car cost and may choose to write off the damaged car for what might only be a minor repair. And that cost gets smeared across all policies.
China has been selling stuff in the US for a very long time with essentially no recourse on parts. Quick example is a simple pallet jack. Go to just about any seller like Grainger, McMaster-Carr, Uline to purchase a pallet jack and the one you buy likely came from China. Something breaks on the pallet jack what do you do? Find the exploded diagram (easy enough), locate on the drawing part you need to replace (easy) then call to get a replacement part right? Wrong. Good luck finding anyone outside of china to buy your broken part from. Good chance purchasing will not even consider dealing with the seller. So what do you do for a simple broken part? Come up with your own repair or toss it in the dumpster and buy a new one.
I would certainly be asking to see all relevant training certificates.
Been burnt by the “yeah, we can fix it” yarn…. but only once. ! 😉
In some professions it is called an analysis of alternatives.
Plenty of facts, ending in some speculation.
Clearly labeled as such.
Would you care to present some counter speculation, or try to refute the facts thqt are being presented.
Or are you going to just sit back and whine, the way you usually do?
Are you admitting that you have no capability for independent thought? that you just unquestioningly accept as truth anything you read as long as it’s in a peer-reviewed journal? How do you think people (even scientists) come up with ideas and questions that may lead to an important or interesting line of research? by someone’s mind wandering.
You have never ran a shop or worked in one have you? I did from age 6 in my fathers agriculture shop being a gopher to 22 when I graduated college and moved into telephone engineering work.
What Eric brings up is factual. You don’t know how many people sue mechanics because they missed something entirely outside what was agreed to be fixed. I remember replacing a front bumper and then being torn a new ___hole for not also fixing the rattle in the dash supposedly caused in the crash. The customer had said nothing about it originally and probably would not have paid to have the work done. I fully expect the insurance company would not have included payment for fixing it either.
It is why reputable mechanics diagnose problems, outline the repair, try to make an accurate cost estimate, and OBTAIN PERSMISSION FROM THE OWNER. In a litigious society, one must protect themselves from any hint of not being upfront with customers.
This is a serious problem that EV owners and those considering an EV should know about. If batteries are so fragile that they can be damaged in small accidents or even when traversing a pothole, it should be a factor in their decisions.
Fact, ANY damage that could have possibly damaged the battery .. ie even a small nudge..
… should lead to the immediate write-off of the EV.
I know our local garage won’t even touch them. No matter what.
Did you here about the 5-6 hour queues at the few existing charging stations over the Easter break… 😉
The difference is that Eric admits he is speculating and provides ways for those with skin in the game to check.
There are plenty of smash repairs who will put everything in writing for our old nit picker
There you go …. oh but you don’t drive a car
https://smash-repairs.com.au/thinking-of-buying-an-ev-heres-why-repairs-and-insurance-might-cost-you-more-than-you-expect/
He is pretty clear about why he won’t repair EVs.
It is a fact that people exploit ignorance, and that the entire Green Machine is replete with fraud and dishonesty (not to mention fact-free speculation). Astute minds do well to wander through the possibilities and anticipate what devious minds no doubt have already considered.
It is interesting that you only insist on facts when speculation threatens the Green dogma and its components. Classic Stokes.
You wouldn’t recognize a fact even if it was shoved up your a$$, little nickee.
at least he can see daylight.
Your head is so far up your arse you gargle with your balls (if you had any)
Give it up, Nick. This is your lost cause.
We have seen, too often, the devastation from lithium secondary cells and batteries flaming.
Yes I know. More gas car fires by percentage. So what? If a gas car fire starts, grab the extinguisher and you are back to work shortly after. If a lithium battery burns, you lose the shop.
Simple cost risk benefit analysis. The failure rate may be lower, but the consequences are huge.
Now consider that the cars have been in an accident. That can and does alter the internal structure of the cells/batteries. That increases the probability substantially. I know. I was the battery SME that investigated a lithium primary event an an Air Force base. It’s real.
This is not just “Eric’s mind wandering.”
The salient points.
Why are the large repair shops refusing the business?
Why are the insurance companies sending the repair to small shops?
The shop owners need to read the fine print on the contracts to make sure if something goes wrong they are not stuck with a catastrophic loss.
Whenever possible, we avoid LiPO chemistries for power sources on rockets. When we do have to use them, Range Safety requires us to add 20 lb. to 50 lb. of fire protection around the battery packs. The concern is real. We have to charge them remotely. We have to switch them on and off (powering the system) remotely. Why? So if something goes wrong, launch personnel are not at risk.
China no longer allows EVs to charge in underground parking.
We deal with hazardous materials and operations all the time.
In my business we know exactly what we are working with.
An EV that has been in a collision is a hazardous material and it cannot be known, with clarity, what one is dealing with in this circumstance.
Mr. Stokes: No facts, eh? All you’ve done is demonstrate that you don’t grasp the meaning of the word “fact”. Again.
Kinda makes sense… Train your guys well on EV repairs then force those repairs to go through your “Little Guy” competition. Over time you force the “Little Guys” out of business and competition is eliminated.
Wait, so giving business to your competitors forces them out of business?
It does if insurance is an issue and they face a single incident involving an EV after repairs. They could face bankruptcy.
You are more devious than an insurance lawyer. 🙂
I wonder if their insurer, (the repair shop), has any idea about the risks that the business is taking on.
If the insurance cover excludes EV repairs and the follow on risk then the business owner could be on very thin ice. How much is in their bank to cover the costs, will this also extend to the employees? Would an employee want to be at financial risk because their employer wasn’t covered for the risks that your work entails, should they be asking the obvious question(s)?
Alternatively, what if the insurance cover doesn’t mention EV repairs and doesn’t mention them as a special risk. Is there a bigger game at play here? Are the insurance companies somehow being forced to spread the risk across ALL vehicles, even if they don’t have electric drive?
Them Chemical Fuel Tanks (EV Batteries) is where the trouble lies.
The more EVs there are on the road, the more everyone’s insurance premiums go up. To avoid possible future liability, insurance companies are totaling EVs which have even superficial damage to the battery housing.
I strongly suspect there is an EV exclusion hidden in the small print of the shop liability policy. That’s why I suggested a lawyer.
I would want to get a very clear and explicit, in writing, statement from my insurer that they would cover damage that may result from EV repairs. Including damage to the shop, other vehicles in the shop, injury/expiry of persons including employees, customers or any others as well as covering liability should the repaired vehicle later develop some sort of catastrophic fault leading to similar sorts of damage.
I really can’t imagine an insurance company wanting to do that though.
Eng_Ian, Good questions. I wonder if that was just your “mind wandering.”
Hopefully, /s not needed, but maybe for Nick.
My mind wanders from one sane thought to another, I think it’s healthy to allow it to walk off on tangents, you get to see the world in all sorts of different ways. Just as long as you know which concepts are real and which are based on unicorn farts and/or renewable power.
And unlike another on this site who just wanders around aiming for some nitpicking as a highlight in his otherwise empty shell, I enjoy the thought of interacting with others AND getting a nett positive comment count.
I sure hope the insurance companies don’t spread the risk to all ICE vehicles. We need to figure this out.
“smash repair shops”
Never heard that term- but I’m not surprised, I know zero about the auto industry- a mental block as I’ve always hated the $$$ vehicles cost. But is that a UK term or American? Maybe everybody here has heard the term but me. I wouldn’t be surprised when it comes to vehicles. Around here- in Wokeachusetts, I’ve always called them “body shops”.
The wife and I met a young couple from England in Greece while traveling and he used the term “panel basher” when I asked him what he did for a living. Explanation was needed 🙂
Did he mention anything about wings and bonnets?
Joseph, a “body-shop” in Australia is also what employment agencies are called.
I’ve worked in the US auto industry for 60 years, and I’ve never heard it either.
re: “smash repair shops”
Collision repair, here in the US anyway … also “body shop” …
Not a common term in the UK.
Same here: “body shop” or “collision repair”. Easy enough to figure out what he was referring to, but not something I’ve ever heard before.
“”smash repair shops”
I had to look up that expression.
“A smash repair shop (or collision repair center) is a specialized automotive facility that restores vehicles to their pre-accident condition after collisions, ranging from minor dents to major structural damage. They combine structural, cosmetic, and mechanical repairs, including panel beating, frame realignment, spray painting, and paint matching to ensure safety and aesthetics.”
“While mechanical shops fix the car’s engine, drivetrain, and operational components due to wear and tear, smash repairers specifically address damages caused by accidents, often working directly with insurance claim…”
“… they utilize specialized equipment like welding stations and frame-straightening machines to ensure structural integrity.”
The problems with current BEVs are being addressed with the development of Sodium-ion batteries. Here’s a brief AI overview of the ‘Technical Specifications’ as of March 2026
“The Naxtra architecture has established new performance benchmarks for sodium-ion technology:
Energy Density: Current cells reach up to 175 Wh/kg, making them competitive with many standard Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Driving Range: In standard passenger EV configurations, these batteries support a range of 400 km to 500 km. Future iterations are projected to reach 600 km.
Extreme Cold Performance: Naxtra batteries maintain 90% capacity retention at -40°C and can deliver nearly triple the discharge power of LFP batteries at -30°C.
Safety Certification: These cells were the first to pass China’s updated national safety standard (GB 38031-2025), which mandates strict thermal stability and mechanical impact resistance.”
For more information, read the following article.
https://battery-tech.net/how-sodium-ion-technology-is-disrupting-the-global-battery-market-in-2026/
Not sure I would trust Sodium Batteries either.
Potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium, and cesium are water reactive metals and have very negative reactions with contact with water.
If it came from AI, it’s probably garbage.
Remember, all it’s doing is trolling websites, if all it finds are the sales pages, then guess what the response will be…… Glowing, brilliant, better than sliced bread, unstoppable, etc, etc.
Reality will kick in when the commercial units fail to uphold their end of the warranty specification.
“If it came from AI, it’s probably garbage.”
Thank you for your thoughtful and well reasoned comment.
It seems that a lot of very smart and successful people are pouring billions of dollars into AI. Have you ever used it? It really is amazingly useful.
It really is amazingly useful.
Except when it isn’t. It always needs to be fact-checked – you should never take it at face value, especially for anything of any importance.
And yes, I do use it, regularly.
Humans live and interact in the real world.
AIs reside and interact in an information space filled by whatever nonsense humans care to insert.
Vincent, in case you haven’t figured it our yet, the key giveaway term in “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) is the word “artificial”.
ar‧ti‧fi‧cial /ˌɑːtɪˈfɪʃəl◂ $ ˌɑːr-/ ●●● S3 adjective [usually before noun]
1 not real or not made of natural things but made to be like something that is real or natural
Sodium batteries are heavier than lithium batteries which makes the EV vehicle even heavier than it already is … doh.
Personally I am hanging out for the Quantum Battery 🙂
It charges instantly
It never loses charge
It will outlast you and your car
The only downside is it might be a few years away like your sodium battery but the EV might be ready for prime time by then.
Instant charging is sort of an electrical infrastructure hardware problem.
Personally I am hanging out for the Quantum Battery.
Or maybe ZPM’s, like they had in Stargate.
We need to check out area 51, surely the space aliens have solved the battery problem.
Me? I am hoping for Mr. Fusion.
Ah, come on folks. It genuinely looks like Sodium-Ion batteries will probably be an improvement over Lithium-ion on a number of fronts. And there’s little question that EV batteries could do with some improvement. Do I own an EV? I most certainly do not. Would I consider one if I lived in a warm climate, and didn’t occasionally take long trips (Who wants to hang out in the back corner of some obscure parking lot for half an hour or more waiting for the “tank” to fill up — assuming that the charger works and the plugs and sockets are compatible?), and had a place to charge it at home, and didn’t have to deal with ice and snow for five months of the year, and they didn’t cost too damn much?
Maybe. But I’m not everyone. And I think there are legitimate use cases for EVs. Probably more and more of them as the vehicles and their batteries improve over the years.
A legitimate case for an EV?
I discovered the answer back in the early 1980s. Golf Carts!
🙂
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries typically offer higher energy density (150 to 300 Wh/kg) compared to Sodium-ion (90 to 160 Wh/kg).
While the Na-ion batteries are a tad cheaper and somewhat better performance over the temperature range, it means you have to stop to recharge twice as often and the recharge per mile driven is comparable to Li-ion. The mass of sodium is roughly three times that of lithium reducing the gravimetric energy density. What I do not have a handle on, yet, is the maximum load current a sodium-ion cell can provide. Generally speaking,, the charge capacity is C and the nominal load current is 1C (a 1 amp hour cell can output 1 amp).
Lithium primary and secondary have been around since the 1970s and a lot is know about those chemistries. Sodium secondary is the new kid on the block. One has to wonder what new and exciting things will be discovered in the next few years or decades.
Who assesses what work is to be done on smashed vehicles? Do the insurers specify the work, or are they simply shipping vehicles to said country smash repair shop, and telling them to fix it?
If insurers assess, even if simply in general terms – bodywork at the front, and the shop simply fixes what they’re told, presumably they’re not liable for defects they’re not informed about, especially those outside their expertise.
But if they are responsible for identifying defects e.g. electrical issues, or invisible defects within the battery system, then that could be a very costly and legally dangerous state of affairs – they simply aren’t equipped or trained to identify such problems.
Of course the ultimate loser is the owner who thinks their cheap insurance repair meant only minor damage, and whose heirs learn it was actually something more serious when said vehicle, with owner inside, blows up next time there’s a minor fender bender.
Until the media start reporting on EVs blowing up however …
Our Ford Hybrid Escape was rear-ended, very minor dent in the deck lid. $3,000 repair bill.
I’m told by a former Tesla employee that unless repairs done on a wrecked model are referred by Tesla, the company will not accept that vehicle for further service. Why? The batteries, of course. This employee was specially trained in how to discharge the battery after a serious accident makes it undriveable. Ideally firefighters also should have that training. Repair shops also need to know how to test the batteries and electrical system in these vehicles. I have no comment on the insurance implications, but I agree the guy should go over the insurance referral contracts with a fine tooth comb. Why? Lawyers, of course. Any auto repair after an accident is more costly than decades ago, not counting inflation, because of the electronics that are pervasive in ICE cars as well as EVs. Also, parts of many vehicles are made of plastic, requiring complete replacement of those components. EV’s in high speed accidents are a particular problem because they weigh so much more than comparably sized ICE vehicles. As economical as EVs seem to be, there are added costs, from manufacturing, power generation, the grid, battery lifetimes, and the cost of repair. Choose wisely, as Indiana and the Nazis were told.
Discharge the battery.
And now for the sums. Let’s say it is a 100kWhr battery, 50% full at the time of the crash, (as the owner wasn’t concentrating on the road but was instead worrying about getting home). So 50kWhr of energy is available.
Use the LED lights, full beam, all lights on. Well that’s probably 200W, so at that rate, the discharge will take 250 hours.
Safe, yes. Fast, no.
If you use the heater to discharge it faster you need to make sure the hot air has somewhere to go. Smash a window? Or two?
You also need to make sure the heater wasn’t damaged in the crash.
Broken heater = short the battery. Oops. 🙂
EV’s also punch through highway guard rails of current conventional designs. Research is underway to come up with suitable guard rail designs that can safely deflect EV impacts. The result will be that tens of billions of dollars will have to be spent by cities and departments of transportation to replace old guard rails with new designs.
I witnessed a transportation safety research test of a Tesla crashing into a conventional guard at an ordinary angle. The guard rail failed to properly contain and redirect the vehicle. Instead the Tesla punched right through. To be safe, the test was conducted with the de-energized Tesla on a tow cable system. Even so, researchers conducted careful thermal and air quality monitoring both inside and outside the crashed vehicle before approaching it. Occupants in an EV face the risk of fiery deaths or exposure to highly toxic fumes, also a risk to emergency responders.
Ideally firefighters also should have that training.
I can’t speak for big cities like LA/NY but us rural guys definitely don’t.
In Europe they get a forklift and drop the burning wreck in a dumpster full of water, it’s the only way to quench the fire until the vehicle is somewhere safe.
Unless the forklift is specially designed for this task, I wouldn’t want to be the driver.
“As economical as EVs seem to be”
I’ve never seen any evidence to support such an assumption.
I have a few questions.
i) Are these repairs primarily to body work?
ii) Do these facilities repair the electrical system under the bonnet/hood?
iii) What about rear end shunts, which would impinge on the battery?
iv) what about collisions involving hybrids on the opposite side to the fuel tank?
I am in the U.K. and as I understand it any EV involved in a collision that could affect the integrity of the battery is written off by the insurance company because of the risk of post repair fires (irrespective of how competent the repair).
If a repair was completed and there was undetectable or unanticipated damage then the repairer is unlikely to be accountable for subsequent outcomes, but the owner would be faced with another insurance claim with the associated increase in premiums. Which would also leave the insurance company with a heightened risk.
OK We all know that current battery technology is the Achilles heel in all of the misnamed “alternative” or “clean” methods of harnessing solar energy by panels or windmills as well as for use in vehicles and homes.
Point well made at the level of distribution of service across town and country.
Here in the UK the fire services were called out to deal with blazes involving solar panels and their batteries once every 2 days in 2024 according to Insurance company QBE. Their analysis also showed that the fires had increased at twice the rate of new installations.
From Copilot AI …
“Is there any data about houses or garages burning down because an EV burst into fire/flames?
Short answer: Yes — but the data shows these events are extremely rare, and far less common than fires started by gasoline vehicles. There are documented cases of EVs igniting in garages or damaging homes, but they are statistical outliers rather than a widespread pattern.
1. What the data says about EV‑related house or garage firesThe most comprehensive numbers available show:
That means gasoline cars catch fire ~60× more often than EVs, and hybrids catch fire even more frequently.
These numbers include all EV fires — not just those occurring at homes — and the data does not show a significant number of EVs burning down houses.
2. Do EVs burn down houses or garages?There is no national dataset that specifically tracks “house burned down because an EV caught fire.” However:
What we do know:
Even with these incidents, the overall rate remains extremely low.”
Events that are “rare” are more likely to make the evening news because … they are “rare.”
You are quoting the AI system’s first response to your question. It reads exactly like a PR statement for EV sales because the AI has been trained on the propaganda. You have to interrogate AI to tease out the nuanced answers. For example, there is no mention of relative severity or controllability of vehicle fires, or the comparative age of burned vehicles. I suspect that the vast majority of internal combustion car fires are quickly and easily controllable with basic fire extinguishers while hot, toxic EV fires are rapid, uncontrollable and very damaging to any nearby structure or combustible material.
EVs are also a relatively recent addition to and small portion of the fleet, so reliable, long-term industry statistics may not be available.
pflashgordon wrote, “You are quoting the AI system’s first response to your question. It reads exactly like a PR statement for EV sales because the AI has been trained on the propaganda.”
And your authority states, “I have no proof this is happening, but in my opinion the situation stinks.”
“EVs are also a relatively recent addition to and small portion of the fleet, so reliable, long-term industry statistics may not be available.”
Yet people write that they are dangerous …
You might find this interesting … or not.
When NASA reshapes a safety standard, it adds additional requirements and makes existing requirements more extreme.
I deal with NASA Range Safety all the time.
Not this nonsense again.
Incidents per vehicles sold is probably the most useless statistic any propagandist every came up with.
Says nothing about the number of cars in the field.
Says nothing about how many cars on the road.
Says nothing about how many vehicle miles are being driven or what kind of miles those are.
A couple of confounding factors that your little piece of propaganda leaves out.
The average age of the ICE fleet is at least an order of magnitude greater than the average age of the EV fleet.
ICE cars driven an average of at least 2 to 3 times as many miles per year.
Any analysis that leaves out most of the relevant statistics is an analysis that is designed to defraud, not to inform.
I know for a fact non-dealership shops are refusing to work on EVs here in PA. One, liability. 2. Insurance companies are refusing to payout even on repairs they authorize until the EV goes to a dealership shop. Insurance companies have already been screwing over bodyshops and repair shops by sslloowwwwww walking paying for parts/repairs THEY authorized. Starting to see a pattern here?
“Death rates in hybrids ‘three times higher than petrol cars’ as road safety experts call for inquiry” from
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15416671/Death-rates-hybrids-three-times-leading-road-safety-experts.html
Emergency services are overhauling how they investigate accidents involving hybrid cars after The Mail on Sunday revealed that motorists are three times more likely to die in hybrids than in petrol cars.
Experts believe the heightened death rate could be down to the combination of petrol engines, batteries and electric motors, which make them more prone to fires.
Some say that when it comes to safety ‘they are the worst of both worlds’.
Ministers last night confirmed that fire and rescue services will now track what causes the blazes.
First responders will report whether the source of ignition was a battery and whether that battery was on charge at the time of the incident.
A total of 122 people died in hybrid car crashes in 2024, compared with 777 in accidents involving petrol cars, according to Department for Transport figures analysed by the MoS.
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. Previously, the Government did not accept that there is a problem.
Transport ministers said: ‘Insurance industry analysis suggests that hybrid vehicles are less likely to catch fire than internal combustion engine vehicles.’
However, they refused to share their findings publicly.
Tusker, which insures 30,000 company cars, found that hybrids were more likely to catch fire.
Some believe the higher death rates could be explained by the increased mileage of hybrids, which are favoured by Uber drivers.
Shadow transport secretary Richard Holden said: ‘It’s quite clear that The Mail on Sunday’s reporting has moved the dial on this issue, causing the Government to think again and recognise the impact of the dangers of some hybrids.’
This problem is not unique to EVs. Insurance companies use it to avoid liability for flood damaged vehicles as well. Any damage that only shows up over time, hidden behind superficial repairs.
“some small business owners might be about to have their lives ruined.” — or lost.
Who the hell uses the phrase “Smash Repair Shop”?
Commonly called Crash Repairs in Oz if you’re not looking for pronounspeak like Automotive Body Rebuilders or some such nicety. Crash or Smash it’s pretty much the same ordeal unless your looking for Mobile Bumper/Paintless Dent Repairs for minor bumps and knocks.
Here ya go if you’ve had a smash or crash in my neck of the woods-
crash repairs – Bing Maps
I guess smash repairs might intimate it’s an insurance writeoff which doesn’t take much with a dent in an EV battery by all accounts.