Most electric cars today are still new. But they will also have to undergo technical inspection for the first time after three years. There may be one or two unpleasant surprises.

Stromer will soon be three years old, time for the first one main inspection, But what’s blooming in me? The Tüv Association took a look at four popular models and found out: Even electric cars have Tüv problems—depending on the model, test reports can be mixed. For the evaluation, four popular vehicles from recent years were examined: the BMW i3, Renault Zoe, Smart Fortwo Electric Drive and the Tesla Model S.

brakes especially cause problems

The Electric Smart Fortwo fared the best: Only 3.5 percent of the vehicles had significant defects and thus failed normal inspections. It is followed by the BMW i3 (4.7 percent), the Renault Zoe (5.7 percent) and the Tesla Model S (10.7 percent). For comparison: Among vehicles two to three years old with combustion engines, the proportion of cars presented with significant defects was 4.7 percent.

A startling discovery by testers: Problems with brake components are specific to electric vehicles, TUV explains. Because they are used much less frequently than combustion engines and therefore wear out more often.

Tip: Even if multiple stromer brakes as soon as you let go of the accelerator pedal (one-pedal-driving), use the brakes whenever possible and have them regularly serviced.