Pothole damage from electric cars is double that of petrol, Telegraph data show
Excessive weight could exacerbate problem on already damaged residential roads that are not designed to cope
By Jack Simpson, Transport Correspondent and Alex Clark, Data Projects Editor
26 June 2023 • 9:25pm
Electric cars damage roads twice as much as their petrol equivalents, analysis has shown, as the pothole crisis grows on Britain’s roads.
Analysis by The Telegraph has found that the average electric car more than doubles the wear on road surfaces, which in turn
could increase the number of potholes.
The country is suffering from a pothole crisis, with half as many filled last year compared to a decade ago amid an estimated £12 billion price tag to fill them all.
Road industry bodies have raised fears that
electric cars could exacerbate the problem on residential roads. The number of electric cars being driven has tripled to 900,000 since 2019 ahead of the Government’s 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars as part of its net zero drive.
As many as four in five miles could be driven by electric cars by 2035, according to estimates by the Department for Transport.
The Telegraph found that the average electric car puts 2.24 times more stress on roads than its petrol equivalent, and 1.95 more than diesel. Larger electric vehicles weighing over 2,000kg (2 tons) cause the most damage, with 2.32 times more wear applied to roads.
Such stress on roads causes greater movement of asphalt, which can create small cracks. If these are not fixed, then these expand and
eventually develop into potholes.
The Telegraph used analysis led by the University of Leeds which assessed the weights of 15 popular electric car models alongside their petrol equivalents.
Researchers divided them by size, including small electric cars weighing over 1,000kg, such as the BMW Mini Cooper SE 3 Door and Peugeot e208, medium models over 1,500kg such as the Ford Focus Electric and Vauxhall Corsa-e, and larger vehicles including the Jaguar I- pace EV and Audi e-tron 50 Quattro.
They found that the electric vehicles were on average 312kg heavier than similar petrol versions. This is because they must carry heavy batteries, which can weigh up to 500kg.
Fourth power formula
The analysis uses the “fourth power formula”, which is widely used by highways engineers and researchers to assess the damage caused to road surfaces by heavier vehicles. It means that if weight on a vehicle’s axle is doubled, it does 16 times the damage to the road.
The additional weight of personal cars is unlikely to have much of an impact on motorways and main roads, which are designed to withstand axle weights for heavy goods vehicles. The wear caused by smaller private vehicles compared to HGVs is minimal.
However, some experts have said the proliferation of heavier electric cars on smaller residential and rural roads could have more of an impact.
Rick Green, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, previously told The Telegraph: “Unclassified roads would not have been designed to accommodate HGV axle weights, so heavier electric cars could
exacerbate existing weaknesses thereby accelerating decline.”
Separate research from the University of Edinburgh found that the roll-out of electric lorries could increase the damage to roads in Scotland by almost a third. Lead researcher John Low estimated that it could cost the Scottish government and councils an additional £164 million to maintain roads if all buses and lorries became electric.
Greater impact
Mr Low said that on roads where fewer HGVs and buses were used there could be a greater impact.
However, he said: “Given the overwhelming impact of larger vehicles, the proportion of large vehicles would have to be very much smaller than the nationwide average for the impact of cars etc to be significant.”
He added: “There are also other fuel options where this could be less of an issue, like hydrogen vehicles, which are only slightly heavier than diesel ones, where effect would be greatly reduced. Synthetic fuels are another possibility.”
Last month, a report by the centre-right think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, which has close ties with the Government, raised the issue of electric vehicles causing more damage to roads, and suggested taxing vehicles based on weight.
Britain’s motorists continue to contend with the falling standards of road conditions across the country.
The AA reported last month that the number of pothole-related call-outs it had received had grown by a third in a year, with the company responding to 52,000 incidents in April alone.