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Why Car Repairs Have Become So Expensive

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“The idea that E.V.s are being totaled left and right is the horror story that keeps insurers up at night,” Mr. Mandell said. “Has that happened? Yes. But the incidents are few and far between.”

Data from Mitchell shows that in 2022 electric vehicles cost about $6,800 on average to fix after accidents, about $2,400 more than the average for all cars. Battery-powered cars tend to require more expensive parts, the company said, and repairing them takes more time and may require work by specialist mechanics.

But a big reason electric cars tend to cost much more to repair, at first glance, is that most of them are newer luxury models. Tesla’s cars, which sell for between $40,000 and around $110,000, account for 75 percent of collision claims for battery-powered models.

Fixing electric vehicles from mainstream brands such as Hyundai or Nissan costs only about $800 more than their gasoline counterparts, according to Mitchell. And in the premium segment, typical repair costs for battery-powered and gasoline vehicles are roughly the same, around $7,000, for model years 2018 and later.

Other data suggests that electric vehicles fare relatively well. About 18 percent of gasoline cars involved in crashes are totaled, while only about 6 percent of battery-powered vehicles are deemed unrepairable after accidents, according to Mitchell.

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Matt Moore, a senior vice president at the Highway Loss Data Institute, a research organization that serves the insurance industry, said insurance and repair data undercut the idea that batteries or electric technology racked up burdensome repair costs. For 11 models that are available in gasoline and electric versions — including the Hyundai Kona and Volvo XC40 — repair costs for the electric models are just 2 percent higher, according to the institute’s analysis.

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