Electric cars record more tyre defects at MOT than petrol cars of the same age, according to research by analyst New Automotive, which examined 1.6 million EV tests and 17.9 million tests of combustion-engined cars.
For every 1,000 MOT tests on cars three to eight years old, about 26 EVs had tread below the legal limit, compared with 18 petrol cars, and cuts reaching the cords appeared in roughly 30 EV tests against 14 petrol cars.
Specialist rubber and the cost trade-off
EV-specific tyres generally offset the extra wear from weight and torque, Molden said, but they carry a premium of up to 50% over normal combustion-car tyres in round numbers. The bigger problem, he argued, is fitting heavy, high-torque cars with tyres unsuited to them, which can double wear rates.
That matters for buyers weighing running costs: the fuel and servicing savings of electric driving are partly eaten by faster tyre replacement, and the penalty lands hardest on owners who fit the cheapest rubber.
Emissions and a chemical blind spot
Faster wear does not translate directly into more airborne pollution, Andersson said, because a tyre with higher overall wear does not necessarily generate proportionally more particle pollution.
Upcoming Euro 7 abrasion standards will push manufacturers toward longer-lasting compounds, which Molden said will affect the toxicity of the particles produced. Prashant Kumar, a University of Surrey professor studying air pollution and health, said tyre-wear particles can contain metals and chemicals whose long-term health impact is not well understood, with larger fragments washed away by rain but finer particles able to become airborne. The BTMA said changes to materials or product design go through extensive technical evaluation and scrutiny.
On carbon, Molden said around two billion end-of-life tyres are discarded globally each year and that making more tyres adds CO2, but this does not erase an EV's life-cycle advantage of approximately 50%, excluding the tyres themselves. Tyres typically last about two years, he added, so going through them faster cannot negate the benefit of electrification.
What the industry is developing
Continental has developed a compound for Volkswagen's new streamliner with rolling resistance around 25% below the level needed for an A rating under the EU energy-efficiency label, and the tyres will influence its next-generation EV compounds. Citroen's 2CV project uses digital twin technology that monitors laden weight, temperature and pressures to simulate the tyre and adjust the car's behaviour, for example ramping up stability control in low-grip conditions.
For drivers, the practical takeaway is unglamorous: check pressures and tread regularly, since the evidence suggests neglect, not electrification alone, is doing much of the damage.
