A long-standing rule of thumb in the used-car market is that high mileage equals mounting mechanical risk. However, MOT data indicates that workshop ramps will look very different as the car parc electrifies.
An analysis of 47.4 million DVSA MOT tests commissioned by the BVRLA and conducted by New AutoMotive reveals that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) show an unexpected trend once they pass 60,000 miles: rather than continuing to deteriorate, their failure rate levels off at around 16%.
For petrol and diesel cars aged three to eight, failure rates climb past 22% and 23% at higher mileages.
Yet for battery-electric cars between 90,000 and 120,000 miles, failure rates stay flat at 16.5%, making high-mileage BEVs 25% less likely to fail an MOT than their petrol equivalents.
The raw data initially seems contradictory. Across all annual MOTs, EVs seem to fail more often than same-age petrol cars between ages 3 and 12.
However, this is skewed by vehicle usage: EVs average 27,072 miles by their first test at age three, compared with 20,499 miles for petrol (+32%).
Once mileage and age are controlled simultaneously, the “EV durability plateau” becomes clear.
Busting the suspension myth
A frequent talking point across the trade is that heavy traction batteries inevitably chew through wishbones, ball joints, and coil springs.
The DVSA data refutes this claim. Between 60,000 and 90,000 miles, BEVs averaged 4.7 suspension defects per 100 tests, compared to 6.1 for petrol and 5.8 for diesel models.
Component failures do not accelerate purely because of battery weight.
BEVs structurally eliminate exhaust and emissions failures entirely, a problem that accounts for 6.1 defects per 100 tests on petrol vehicles aged 15-plus.
Friction brakes
While drivetrain wear slows down on high-mileage EVs, low-to-medium-mileage electric vehicles present an entirely different mechanical issue: disuse corrosion.
Thanks to regenerative braking, high-mileage EVs record fewer brake defects than combustion cars.
However, when tracking vehicles covering modest annual miles, the friction brakes, rarely called upon with hard hydraulic force, suffer from seized sliding pins and heavily pitted, corroded discs.
By year 10, BEV friction brake defects rise to 11.2 per 100 tests, surpassing petrol cars (9.8) and climbing to 15.1 by year 12.
For workshops, this makes regular brake servicing, slider strip-downs, and disc maintenance a key preventative upsell at annual service time rather than waiting for an MOT refusal.
Platform design dictates tyre wear
Tyres remain the single biggest MOT failure point for electric vehicles, which fail tyre inspections at roughly 1.8 times the rate of petrol cars.
Platform design dictates tyre wear
Tyres remain the single biggest MOT failure point for electric vehicles, which fail tyre inspections at roughly 1.8 times the rate of petrol cars.
But twin-model comparisons show this is largely a platform issue.
Converted ICE Platforms: Adding heavy battery packs to legacy chassis architectures without revised suspension geometry results in rapid tyre scrub. The Nissan e-NV200 racked up +6.99 excess tyre defects per 100 tests over its diesel twin, while the VW e-Golf recorded +4.97.
Dedicated BEV platforms: Bespoke EV chassis, such as the BMW i3 and Kia Niro EV, limit excess tyre defects to between +1.3 and +1.9 per 100 tests.
With 94.6% of 15-year-old electric vehicles still returning for an MOT (versus 88.1% of petrol vehicles), older EVs are staying in service rather than heading to the scrapper.
The work is not disappearing, it is shifting toward chassis alignment, EV tyre management, and specialised brake servicing.
How is the electric shift impacting your day-to-day workflow? Does this MOT data match what you’re finding on the ramp, or are older EVs proving more troublesome than the numbers suggest? Have your say in the comments below.
