ELECTRIC vehicles are failing to yet show a clear advantage over petrol and diesel cars and vans when it comes to servicing using what is probably the largest real world data source in the UK.
Looking at three examples – a family hatchback, a panel van and a large SUV – results are mixed when it comes to important costs including tyres and repairs, the number of workshop visits needed, and time spent off-road due to mechanical or electrical problems.
The information comes from epyx, whose 1link Service Network service, maintenance and repair (SMR) platform is used to manage four million company cars, vans and trucks. It is the first time the Solihull-based company has released data comparing EVs to petrol and diesel.
The first example looks at a widely-used family hatchback over three years and 25-30,000 miles. The EV averaged 5.7 visits to service outlets against 5.0 for petrol, 3.2 days spent off road against 4.5, and had workshop servicing costs including tyres of £431 compared to £412. There are no obvious EV benefits.
Switching to an epyx dataset of two year old vehicles with 20-30,000 miles allows a comparison of two large prestige SUVs from a major manufacturer – one petrol and one a purpose-built EV. Here, the EV saves on workshop costs of £645 against £996 and delivers figures of 3.4 days off road, beating the petrol version at 4.9. However, the number of service visits needed are comparable at 4.1 against 4.0.
Finally, better results for electric power can be seen when comparing a model of van that is available in both battery and diesel versions over three years and 25-30,000 miles. Here the EV figures are 5.7 service visits compared to 5.0 for the diesel and 2.2 days spent off road against 2.9. Finally, its workshop costs of £239 are less than half that of the diesel at £522.
Charlie Brooks, strategy director at epyx said: “It has been widely supposed that EVs will deliver uniform SMR benefits over petrol and diesel vehicles because of the fact that they have fewer moving mechanical parts, minimising the likelihood of breakdown and requiring less routine maintenance. The data we have compiled shows that this is not always the case.
“Broadly, while workshop costs for some EVs represent substantial savings over their petrol and diesel equivalents, this cannot be assumed. Also, the number of times that EVs visit garages for maintenance or repair and the amount of time they spend unavailable off road are consistently similar to petrol or diesel vehicles – and these servicing factors very much represent a substantial cost to businesses.
“What the data doesn’t tell us at this stage is why this is the case. There could be good reasons. For example, EVs remain a relatively new technology when operated on a large scale, and what we are seeing could be teething problems that may range from workshops being unfamiliar with these types of vehicles through to parts not being readily available.”
Brooks said it should be underlined that fairly substantial caveats must be applied to epyx’s data. In terms of the information available on 1link Service Network, there remain relatively few EVs of relevant ages and mileages. For the comparisons quoted here, there are only around 170 vehicles in total.
“However, this does remain probably the largest real world EV dataset of its kind available and is possibly the best quality information made public so far. It shows, perhaps surprisingly, that the emerging picture is much more mixed than might be expected.
“The bottom line at this stage is that fleet managers should not automatically believe that, in adopting EVs, they are going to see SMR benefits with every model. That situation may well change over time but these comparisons show that we are not there yet.”
Brooks added that epyx planned to make further data available publicly as the number of EVs on 1link Service Network grows.
“Fleet adoption of EVs is increasing exponentially and the amount of relevant data we have on the platform is increasing month-by-month. We should soon be in a position to produce much richer comparisons as we progress towards a more definitive picture of how fleet EV SMR is shaping up in the real world.”
Leave A Comment