Do electric cars pass their MOT more often than petrol or diesel cars?

Among 3–6 years cars — the age band with the most electric vehicles in the dataset — electric cars pass 90.0% of the time, against 90.6% for petrol cars of the same age and 88.4% for diesel. Comparing within the same age band matters because electric cars are on average much newer than the petrol and diesel fleet, and newer cars of any fuel type fail less often.

Why compare MOT pass rates within the same vehicle age band?

Vehicle age is the single biggest factor in MOT pass rates — older cars fail more, regardless of fuel type. Electric cars have only been sold in meaningful numbers for the last decade, so an unadjusted comparison would really be measuring 'new cars vs old cars', not 'electric vs petrol'. Comparing fuel types only within the same age band removes that bias.

Do electric cars really fail their MOT less often?

Fewer moving parts should mean fewer failures. Among cars aged 3–6 years, the average electric vehicle's pass rate of 90.0% is in line with petrol cars of the same age, at 90.6%.

90.0%

Electric pass rate, 3–6 years cars

-0.6 pts

vs petrol, same age band

+1.6 pts

vs diesel, same age band

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Among cars aged 3–6 years, the average electric vehicle's pass rate of 90.0% is in line with petrol cars of the same age, at 90.6%.

That same average electric vehicle has a pass rate of 90.0%, a little higher than diesel cars of the same age (88.4%).

Hybrids in the same age band pass 92.7% of the time, based on 907,671 tests.

Pass rate by fuel type and vehicle age

MOT pass rate by fuel type, broken down by vehicle age band
Vehicle age	Fuel type	Pass rate	Tests
0–3 years	Electric	91.4%	280,176
0–3 years	Diesel	89.3%	491,787
0–3 years	Gas/LPG	91.8%	3,049
0–3 years	Hybrid	93.6%	509,879
0–3 years	Plug-in hybrid	91.3%	52,990
0–3 years	Petrol	93.2%	1,177,705
3–6 years	Electric	90.0%	360,834
3–6 years	Diesel	88.4%	3,423,558
3–6 years	Gas/LPG	88.2%	2,085
3–6 years	Hybrid	92.7%	907,671
3–6 years	Plug-in hybrid	91.9%	60,690
3–6 years	Petrol	90.6%	5,946,504
6–10 years	Electric	80.1%	66,843
6–10 years	Diesel	82.0%	7,944,682
6–10 years	Gas/LPG	77.4%	956
6–10 years	Hybrid	89.1%	512,026
6–10 years	Plug-in hybrid	85.1%	11,447
6–10 years	Petrol	83.4%	7,303,019
10–15 years	Electric	74.8%	19,181
10–15 years	Diesel	72.0%	6,671,551
10–15 years	Gas/LPG	69.6%	2,774
10–15 years	Hybrid	85.1%	180,538
10–15 years	Plug-in hybrid	76.2%	4,852
10–15 years	Petrol	72.9%	6,450,236
15+ years	Electric	76.3%	1,967
15+ years	Diesel	66.0%	3,506,389
15+ years	Gas/LPG	72.5%	10,009
15+ years	Hybrid	77.7%	64,437
15+ years	Petrol	67.7%	6,263,743

Why age-match the comparison?

Electric cars have only sold in meaningful volumes in the UK since around the mid-2010s, so the electric fleet skews much younger than the petrol and diesel fleet as a whole. Vehicle age is the single strongest predictor of MOT pass rate for every fuel type — comparing electric cars against the whole petrol/diesel fleet, unadjusted for age, would mostly be a comparison of new cars against old ones. Every figure above compares fuel types only within the same age band for that reason.

Methodology and data source

Source: DVSA “Anonymised MOT tests and results”, data.gov.uk, under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Coverage: Full year 2024, test class 4 (cars), normal (initial) tests only.
Every comparison here is within the same vehicle age band — electric cars skew newer than the petrol/diesel fleet, so an unadjusted comparison would mostly be measuring age, not fuel type.
Cells with fewer than the minimum sample size are omitted rather than shown with a misleadingly precise rate — this is why older age bands have little or no electric-vehicle data yet.
Fuel type is classified from DVSA's own fuel_type field (petrol, diesel, electric/BEV, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, gas, hydrogen); a small number of unclassifiable or unusual values are excluded rather than guessed.

Full methodology, filters, and sample thresholds →

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Frequently asked questions

Do electric cars pass their MOT more often than petrol or diesel cars?: Among 3–6 years cars — the age band with the most electric vehicles in the dataset — electric cars pass 90.0% of the time, against 90.6% for petrol cars of the same age and 88.4% for diesel. Comparing within the same age band matters because electric cars are on average much newer than the petrol and diesel fleet, and newer cars of any fuel type fail less often.
Why compare MOT pass rates within the same vehicle age band?: Vehicle age is the single biggest factor in MOT pass rates — older cars fail more, regardless of fuel type. Electric cars have only been sold in meaningful numbers for the last decade, so an unadjusted comparison would really be measuring 'new cars vs old cars', not 'electric vs petrol'. Comparing fuel types only within the same age band removes that bias.