Electric Vehicles Prove More Reliable Than Gas Cars, ADAC Reports in 2025

Electric mobility continues to score wins in 2025. According to the latest breakdown statistics from ADAC, Germany’s largest automobile club, electric vehicles are currently showing significantly fewer roadside incidents than combustion engine cars of the same age. With around 1.65 million EVs now registered across Germany, the expanding data pool is enabling ever more precise quality evaluations across different models.

As of this year, the breakdown rate for combustion engine vehicles stands at 9.4 incidents per 1,000 registered cars. Electric vehicles, by contrast, only show 3.8 breakdowns per 1,000—making them less than half as prone to failure. ADAC ensures a fair comparison by evaluating vehicles of the same age, and now includes three EV model years in its analysis: 2020, 2021, and 2022.

More EV Breakdowns, but Due to Growing Numbers

Despite their lower breakdown rate, the total number of EV-related incidents has sharply increased—reflecting their growing share on the roads. In 2024 alone, ADAC responded to 3.6 million breakdown calls, with 43,678 involving electric vehicles. This marks a 46% increase compared to 2023, meaning the number of EV incidents has nearly doubled in just one year.

As a result, battery-powered cars now take up significantly more space in the ADAC statistics than they did in previous years. For comparison, only about 19,200 EV breakdowns were recorded in 2022, when total callouts were slightly lower at 3.4 million.

A Three-Year Trend: EVs Less Prone to Issues

ADAC first began comparing electric and combustion vehicles in terms of breakdown risk back in 2022. Since then, as EV adoption continues to rise, the data has become more robust and reliable—and the findings are consistent: electric cars break down less frequently.

For three years running, ADAC’s special reports have evaluated EVs against combustion vehicles of the same age. Among four-year-old models (first registered in 2020), EVs currently have a breakdown rate of 8.5 per 1,000, while comparable combustion cars report 12.9—making EVs roughly one-third less prone to problems. For three-year-old vehicles, the EV failure rate rises to about 50% of that of gas cars, but among two-year-olds, EVs again perform strongly, showing only one-third the failure rate of their combustion counterparts.

Conclusion

In 2025, the numbers speak for themselves: electric vehicles in Germany are proving to be more reliable than traditional gas-powered models. Although the total number of breakdowns involving EVs is rising due to growing registration figures, the likelihood of a single electric car needing roadside assistance remains significantly lower. This is a promising sign for drivers, manufacturers, and advocates of electric mobility alike.