Warning for EV drivers as electric cars cause twice as much damage as petrol vehicles
DRIVERS have been warned that electric cars could damage roads TWICE as much as petrol vehicles.
Smaller roads - such as the ones outside most British homes - will crumble under the weight of heavier electric vehicles.
Analysis has shown that the average electric car more than doubles the wear on road surfaces, which could lead to an increase in potholes.
Currently, the UK is suffering a pothole crisis - with half as many repaired last year compared to a decade ago.
And the AIA'S annual Alarm survey found out that it would now cost £12.6billion to fix all the potholes in England's local roads.
This comes after numerous experts have raised concerns about the capacity of the current road infrastructure to handle the increase in EVs.
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Battery-powered vehicles can weigh up to a third more than petrol and diesel cars - and the number of electric cars on British roads has tripled to 900,00 since 2019.
According to the Government's most optimistic forecast, electric vehicles will account for four out of every five miles travelled by 2035.
An average electric car puts 2.24 times more stress on roads than its petrol equivalent - and 1.95 more than diesel, reports.
And larger electric cars weighing over 2,000kg cause the most damage, with 2.32 times more wear applied to the roads.
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Rick Green, chair of the AIA, told the Telegraph: "Principal roads are already designed to deal with the axle weights for HGVs, so we do not anticipate that heavier electrical cars will impact on road surfaces or structures.
"However, on unclassified roads – the sort of roads most of us live on and which make up the majority of the local road network in mileage terms – there could be more of an impact.
“Unclassified roads would not have been designed to accommodate HGV axle weights, so heavier electric cars could exacerbate existing weaknesses, thereby accelerating decline.”
The Government has also anticipated that switching to electric cars will result in higher traffic levels on the roads because EVs are less expensive to maintain than petrol and diesel vehicles.
Also, EVs are more expensive to run than petrol cars, as recharging them at major public points has soared to nearly £50.
Meanwhile, the price of petrol has dropped to around 144p a litre, meaning it costs about £72 to fill up a typical motor.
According to research, electric cars could cost drivers 50% more to insure than a petrol equivalent.
The most sought-after electric vehicles could cost drivers around £650 a year on insurance costs compared to £435 for a petrol motor.
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This comes after electric vehicle drivers were warned that they could soon be hit by a pricey "pothole tax".
Plus, Britain's biggest pothole, which is deep enough to swallow a child, was revealed.