Drivers of electric vehicles more likely to cause road traffic crashes, UL research finds

Drivers of electric vehicles are significantly more likely to cause traffic accidents than people driving petrol or diesel engine cars, according to a study from the University of Limerick (UL).
After mining data covering more than 100 million trips by almost 15,000 commercial fleet vehicles as well as an insurance claims database, a team at Lero, the Science Foundation Research Ireland Centre for Software, and UL pinpointed a small but significant increase in crashes involving EVs when compared with petrol and diesel cars.
The study analysed insurance claims and data from on-board sensors and revealed as well as causing more crashes, EV and hybrid drivers exhibit different behaviours than drivers of traditional vehicles.
It suggests that while EV drivers display reduced risky driving behaviour with less harsh braking, accelerating and cornering than diesel and petrol car drivers, they still cause more accidents.
Lero researcher and lead author Kevin McDonnell noted that analysis of each fuel type showed EVs and hybrids had lower average mileage than petrol and diesel engines.
“This suggests [petrol and diesel] engines should have a higher probability of incurring an at-fault claim than alternate energy fuel-type vehicles. However, the claims data contradicts this assumption,” he said.
Examining driver data from 14,642 commercial fleet vehicles in the Netherlands as well as motor insurance claims databases, the research determined that EVs were at fault in 4 per cent more accidents than petrol or diesel cars.
The study also showed that EVs were almost 7 per cent more expensive to repair than traditional vehicles.
The research did not explicitly state why EV drivers appear more accident prone but noted that certain behaviours more common among EV drivers could be behind the trend.
One factor that certainly seems to be at play is the type of journeys EV drivers take.
Range anxiety and an absence of a reliable charging infrastructure mean EVs tend to cover shorter distances and while they are on the road for less time than petrol or diesel cars, they are more commonly used in urban settings.
By contrast, petrol and diesel cars cover longer distances but more frequently use motorways where accidents are statistically less frequent.
“Our research finds that despite their lower average mileage than internal combustion engines, lower road exposure for EV drivers does not reduce their risk of experiencing an at-fault insurance claim,” said Dr Barry Sheehan, associate professor in risk and finance at UL.
He said with Government policy mandating that as many as one million EVs should be travelling Irish roads in the years ahead, a 4 per cent differential in the accident rate was “a significant amount” and said it should become part of the conversation about a migration to EVs.