Electric car advocates have been forced to fight a series of myths and misconceptions pushed by critics of the technology over the past decade.
Despite their rise in popularity, one of the most persistent claims about electric vehicles (EVs) is that they are responsible for Britain’s pothole crisis.
Several press stories and columns have suggested that because electric cars are typically heavier than petrol-based equivalents due to their batteries, they must be causing more damage to the roads.
But motoring groups and experts told i that the idea is “stupid and ridiculous” – a flawed assumption based on a failure to understand the real causes behind the pothole epidemic.
The AA said the belief that electric cars was behind the dire state of the nation’s roads was a “myth that desperately needs busting”.
Quentin Wilson, the former Top Gear presenter, is frustrated that the potholes claim is still being circulated online among those sceptical about the rise of EVs.
“It’s a myth that has had real traction, sadly, when it’s demonstrably not true,” said the broadcaster, founder of the FairCharge campaign to make EVs more accessible.
He points to a 2022 University of Edinburgh study, which he claims shows that the extra damage would be “overwhelmingly caused by large vehicles – buses, heavy goods vehicles (HGVs)” if batteries replaced fossil fuels.
Passenger vehicles of all kinds make only a “negligible contribution”, according to the study.
Wilson said: “It shows that damage to roads by passenger cars is miniscule compared to the damage by tankers, bin lorries and so on.”
He added: “We have 1.2 million electric cars on our roads, compared to 41 million combustion engine vehicles. So how could electric cars cause the pothole crisis we have? EVs are a distraction from talking about how we fix the problem.”
Robert Llewellyn, presenter of the Fully Charged YouTube channel on EVs, said blaming electric cars was “ridiculous”.
The broadcaster added: “All vehicles enhance potholes in some way, and the HGVs will contribute most. But it’s as stupid blaming electric cars as blaming SUVs or any particular kind of car – it’s a bias based on nothing.”
The Brussels-based sustainable transport group, Transport and Environment, says electric cars are 300kg to 400kg heavier than petrol and diesel equivalents on average.
However, an October study by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), which looked at the top ten best-selling electric and fossil-fuelled cars in Australia, found that the battery-powered vehicles were only 68kg heavier.
Llewellyn said manufacturers were finding ways to shed weight from EVs. “Yes, electric cars have been generally heavier, but only by the weight of a person. And it won’t be true for much longer. Some electric cars are now lighter than their petrol equivalent.”
Earlier this year the Daily Mail corrected an article which claimed that electric cars were helping push Britain’s crumbling roads to breaking point.
It had suggested that a report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) had pointed the finger at EVs and their heavy, lithium-ion batteries.
In fact, the AIA’s March 2024 report had only referred to “increased average vehicle weights on a deteriorating network”, without specifying any particular kind of vehicle.
The real thrust of report had been about the lack of funding to repair potholes and upgrade roads – blaming lack of Government investment for the “continued deterioration”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised an extra £500m for road repairs at last month’s Budget.
But AIA’s 2024 report found that many years of cuts to council budgets meant the amount needed to fix the backlog of road repairs in England and Wales has risen to a record high of £16.3bn.
The RAC estimates that there are now more than one million potholes in the UK.
The motoring group’s head of policy, Simon Williams, said that blaming EVs was “a distraction” from “the lack of preventive maintenance on our roads for too long”.
The RAC expert added: “It lies with Government to provide more funding, but we’ve really need to encourage councils to carry our more maintenance with the money they’ve got.”
Jack Cousens, heads of roads policy at AA, said it was “unfair and misleading” to blame potholes on EVs. “It’s a myth that desperately needs busting.
“The reality is it’s the big stuff – the buses, lorries, HGVs, refuse trucks – that causes the imperfections in the tarmac. And when you get water in and it freezes, you get the expanding and contracting, and that’s what creates potholes.”
Cousens laid the blame at both local and central government. He said most councils were carrying out “patch and run” work which see some potholes filled, rather than focus on comprehensive resurfacing of local road networks.
“The reason for the plethora of potholes is that we haven’t maintained our road network brilliantly. It’s not been a political priority.”
He added: “They are an annoyance to drivers. And they can be fatal for those on two wheels. We’ve seen coroner reports where they write to local authorities and say, ‘Your lack of pothole maintenance regime has contributed to that fatality’.”
Llewellyn said he gets jealous whenever he travels to mainland Europe, saying many countries there have “incredibly smooth” roads. “There are bits of the Cotswolds where I live that are catastrophically bad. It’s been a lack of money over a long time.”
However, not everyone entirely dismisses the impact of EVs. Britpave – the British Cementitious Paving Association – has warned that heavier electric cars could exacerbate the problem of poorly-maintained roads.
Chairman Joe Quirke has said the nation’s roads need to be made “strong enough to withstand the additional weight of electric cars”.
EV critics also point to other practical problems. Charging infrastructure is not expanding quickly enough, they argue, leaving some to queue for hours or face potential breakdowns if nearby chargers are out of action.
Llewellyn said many of the most frustrating claims about EVs – they cannot travel far enough, or are far more expensive than petrol cars – once had a grain of truth, but are now completely outdated.
But the pothole myth? It is simply a “stupid, pig ignorant idea” that must finally be put to bed, said the presenter.
The Government was approached for comment.
