What Car? Reliability Survey: Most and least reliable electric cars

With many new models and brands entering the electric car class, this is one of the most exciting sectors of the new car market.

This year we have data on 34 electric models. They are reported on in two separate reliability charts: one for electric SUVs and this one which contains all other pure electric models.  

When it comes to reliability, electric cars are mid-league; those in this chart scored 90.7% last year and 87.7% this year. Electric SUVs are a bit more robust, with a rating of 89.3% this year. 

How the research was carried out

The annual What Car? Reliability Survey, conducted in association with MotorEasy, polls thousands of car owners about the reliability of their cars. The latest survey gained 29,967 responses and that enabled us to report on 199 models (up to five years old) from 31 different car brands. 

All car owners are asked to tell us if their car suffered any faults over the previous 24 months. For every car that has suffered a fault, we ask in what area the issue occurred, plus how much it cost to repair and how long it spent in the workshop. This information is used to create a reliability rating for each model and brand where we have a large enough response rate.

To gain a better insight into the areas that are causing problems, we also ask owners to let us know what part of the car was faulty. For all cars we have 14 different fault areas: air-con, battery, bodywork, brakes, engine or motor, engine or motor electrics, exhaust, fuel system, gearbox/clutch, interior trim, non-engine or motor electrics, sat-nav/infotainment, steering and suspension systems. On top of this, we've added two new categories for electric cars: charging and drive battery issues, and difficulties with electric motors.

The 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey is live, tell us about your car now

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