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Mitchell’s quarterly report highlights the rising costs and repair challenges for electric and hybrid vehicles in Canada, with claims data showing significant differences compared to gasoline-powered vehicles.
As hybrid and electric vehicles become increasingly popular in Canada, new data from Mitchell’s Q2 2024 Plugged-In: Insights into EV collisions The report found that repair costs for these vehicles continue to be higher than those of traditional gasoline cars, especially in the Canadian market.
Mitchell’s latest report highlights the complexities and costs associated with repairing battery electric vehicles (BEVs), mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in Canada and the United States.
According to the report, repair costs for MHEVs in Canada average $5,302 per incident, compared to $4,958 for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. The gap becomes even wider for PHEVs and BEVs, with average repair costs of $5,665 and $6,534, respectively.
In the US, the gap between MHEVs and ICEs was much smaller: repair costs were $4,726 for hybrids compared to $4,806 for ICEs. PHEVs cost $5,059 and BEVs $5,753.
“As with BEVs, PHEVs can be more expensive to repair after an accident than their combustion engine counterparts,” notes Ryan Mandell, Mitchell’s claims manager. “However, because mild hybrids have both a combustion engine and a small electric battery, they are remarkably similar to pure gasoline cars in terms of the amount of damage.”
As shown above, repair costs for hybrid and electric vehicles are significantly higher in Canada than in the U.S. For example, while the average repair cost for a BEV in the U.S. is $5,753, repair costs for a BEV in Canada average $6,534—a difference of nearly $800.
Looking at total loss rates, BEVs and gasoline-powered vehicles as of 2021 have similar numbers in Canada, with BEVs at 7.24 percent and ICE vehicles at 8.52 percent. This is slightly lower than the numbers from the U.S., where BEVs and ICE vehicles have total loss rates of 9.16 percent and 9.45 percent, respectively.
The report also found that BEVs require, on average, more mechanical labor hours (8.18 percent) than internal combustion engine vehicles (5.21 percent) when estimating collision damage. However, BEVs are less likely to require frame work, suggesting that their design may be more effective at preventing structural damage in collisions.
Repairing BEVs uses significantly more original manufacturer parts, accounting for 89 percent of parts costs for repairable BEVs, compared to 65 percent for internal combustion engine vehicles, Mitchell found.
