A new research paper from the University of Limerick and the Universitat de Barcelona claims that millions of commercial vehicle trips indicate electric car drivers are more likely to cause crashes

Electric car drivers are more likely to be “at fault” in crashes and car accidents than petrol or diesel car drivers, according to new research from the University of Limerick and Universitat de Barcelona.

The research is based on telematic data from 125m commercial fleet vehicle trips involving 14,642 vehicles over a nine-month period in 2022 in the Netherlands.

Overall, it found that despite electric vehicles (EVs) racking up fewer kilometres than petrol or diesel cars, they were more likely to be involved in at-fault road traffic accidents. EVs are also more expensive to repair than non-EVs.

“Our research shows drivers' driving behaviour changes significantly when switching to hybrids or EVs,” said Dr Barry Sheehan, a researcher and co-director of the Centre of Emerging Risk Studies the Kemmy Business School.

“These results mean EVs are more likely to experience an at-fault claim than internal combustion engines.”

Dr Sheehan said that this remained the case “despite [EVs’] lower average mileage than internal combustion engines”.

This, together with “lower road exposure for EV drivers does not reduce their risk of experiencing an at-fault insurance claim”, he said.

“When analysing at-fault claims, we find a 4pc increase in crashes from EVs and a 6pc increase for hybrids compared to internal combustion engines.

“However, when tested with statistical models, hybrids do not display any further concerns of increased at-fault claim risk. These results indicate that EVs have a higher risk profile than traditional internal combustion engine vehicles.”

In a paper to be published in November in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention, the Lero researchers analysed insurance claims and data from onboard sensors. The paper is co-authored by Lero (UL’s Research Ireland Centre for Software) and UL’s Kevin McDonnell, Dr Sheehan and Professor Finbarr Murphy, as well as Professor Montserrat Guillen of Universitat de Barcelona.

Reporting on:independent.ie