The Nissan Leaf topped the reliability ranking with a 1.52% claim rate and an average repair cost of £818. The top issues were lane assist cameras (£1,600), shock absorbers (£443) and steering wheel control switches (£415).
Second place went to the Audi e-tron with a 3.23% claim rate and one of the lowest average repair costs in the study (£570), with common faults including central locking solenoids, wheel bearings and anti-roll bar links.
Rounding out the top five:
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Vauxhall Corsa Electric (4.76% / £702)
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Ford Mustang Mach-E (5.26% / £2,242)
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Tesla Model 3 (6% / £625)
And at the other end of the scale, some models showed much higher claim rates, including Tesla Model S (38.46%), Mercedes EQB (33.33%) and Tesla Model X (23.53%).
The bit people think is the story… isn’t
WSG’s data suggests many common issues aren’t “the battery doom story” people love to panic about. The most common fault across models was anti-roll bar link failures (9.52% of claims, avg £276), often driven by heavier EV kerb weights putting more load through suspension components.
Other frequent areas:
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lower arm faults (5.67% / £388)
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air conditioning compressor faults (4.76% / £1,232)
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charge port faults (4.23% / £320)
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TPMS (4.12% / £107)
EV Café Takeaway
I’ve got a Nissan Leaf parked outside that runs perfectly and it’s got 140,000 miles on the clock.”
Sam Clarke*
Those early Model S and Model X cars were very early days of mass EV production, complex engineering, falcon doors, lots to go wrong.”
Sam Clarke
The takeaway isn’t “Leaf good, Tesla bad”. It’s that early EV design decisions matter, and reliability data only makes sense when you understand how and where vehicles have been used.