Luxury cars and 100% electric SUVs may be up to 40% more likely to cause accidents than their standard motor counterparts according to research carried out by French insurer AXA, although it acknowledges that the data is based on claims received and are not "statistically significant".

In an information collected by the Reuters agency, AXA says that, in general, the accident rates of vehicles driven only by electricity are almost the same as those of vehicles with combustion engines considering a fleet of 1,000 cars for seven years. "However, while in the case of smaller battery models, less accidents occur, between luxury models and SUVs, 40% more accidents are observed."

The reason for this would be in the greater acceleration capacity of these models since, due to its technical characteristics, an electric car delivers almost all of its torque from the beginning. In this way, not only does it gain speed quickly and evenly but it does so from very low revolutions. "And this makes drivers go faster than expected," accustomed to conventional models in which it takes time to reach that maximum acceleration.

In fact, in a survey conducted this year among battery car users, half of them said they had to adjust their driving to these new acceleration and braking characteristics.

At present, the electric vehicle park is marginal and the offer of luxury models and SUVs is even smaller since the Tesla models (Model S and X) that have been on sale for a few years, can hardly be sold. add the Jaguar i-Pace since last year, the Audi e-tron for a few months and the Mercedes EQC that is starting its commercialization.

The AXA report also states that most people do not know how to react if they encounter an electric vehicle accident scene. For example, remember that it is important to make sure the engine is off, since it makes no noise. Also, even if the batteries run out of power automatically, if they are damaged they can catch fire up to 48 hours after a crash, which makes it more difficult to deal with the consequences of an accident. Finally, he questions that in Europe no reports produced in the US have been replicated and that they claim that electric vehicles are up to two-thirds more likely to cause accidents with pedestrians or cyclists because of the silence with which they move.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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