A study shows that electric cars are overrepresented in certain traffic accidents, particularly affecting pedestrians.
Electric cars are more often involved in accidents with pedestrians, at least when compared to diesel and gasoline cars in other types of traffic accidents.
Conversely, electric cars are less often part of the statistics of fatal accidents, shows an analysis from Statistics Norway (SSB).
The study, which covers the period from 2018 to 2023, focuses on traffic accidents with personal injury. The data also takes into account the share of electric cars in the total car fleet. And in Norway, it is actually quite interesting.
This is what SSB writes in a press release .
Shortly before the New Year, Norwegians had to retract a number of figures that 'proved' that the electric car had overtaken the petrol car in the country. Read more about it here.
However, the study also takes into account how many kilometers the electric cars actually drive. In other words, how much electric cars are actually on the roads. Those factors and reservations just don't change the result.
According to Statistics Norway, which corresponds to the similar Statistics Denmark, the share of electric cars in traffic accidents has more than tripled between 2018 and 2023. Specifically, the share of electric cars in accident statistics has increased from 7 to 25 percent.
However, this is primarily due to the fact that the number of electric cars generally increased during the same period. The share of electric cars in Norway grew from 7 percent to 24 percent in those years. While their share of the total mileage, i.e. how many kilometers Norwegians drive per year, has increased from 7 percent to 28 percent. Thus, the increase in the accident rate is proportional to the spread of electric cars.
The analysis shows no general overrepresentation of electric cars in traffic accidents with personal injury, as SSB concludes.
– For all traffic accidents with personal injury nationwide, we found no signs that electric cars were overrepresented in the accidents during the period studied.
When it comes to serious accidents, however, there are differences. Electric cars were overrepresented in pedestrian accidents throughout the period studied, suggesting a particular risk in this category.
The fact that electric cars are very quiet has been the subject of much debate in recent years. For the same reason, in 2019 it became a requirement that AVAS, which stands for Acoustic Vehicle Alert System, must be installed in all electric cars.
The system releases an artificially created sound as soon as an electric car moves at 20 km/h or more. The requirement was almost a year in the making. It was adopted by the EU in October 2018.
Conversely, electric cars were and are underrepresented in fatal accidents. However, that does not mean that things don't go wrong in electric cars. Read more about it here .
