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fullscreen Electric cars can be a bigger threat than petrol cars if you’re out and about in traffic. Archive image. Photo: Janerik Henriksson/TT
Many have probably been surprised when an electric car suddenly appeared without warning. That electric cars are quiet may be pleasant, but a new study reveals ominous accident statistics. And pedestrians in urban environments are most at risk.
Pedestrians are twice as likely to be hit and killed in accidents with an electric or hybrid car compared to a petrol or diesel car, according to a British study.
The risk was highest in urban environments, where there was a three times higher risk of pedestrians being killed after being hit by an electric car than a car with fossil fuels.
– One explanation could be that electric cars are quieter and that they accelerate faster, says Anna Vadeby, senior researcher at the state’s road and transport research institute (VTI).
Higher risk
In the study, the researchers looked at statistics for around 96,000 accidents in the UK where pedestrians died after being hit by a car, between 2013 and 2017.
Overall, only 2 percent of the cases involved an electric or hybrid car. But when the researchers took into account how much of the car fleet these accounted for, there were 5 deaths per 16 million miles driven with electric cars, compared to just under 2.5 deaths with gasoline and diesel cars involved.
Anna Vadeby is surprised that there was such a much higher risk of pedestrian accidents with electric and hybrid cars.
– Maybe people were still above electric cars in traffic when the study was done?
Changed driving behavior
According to Anna Vadeby, there are different opinions on whether those who drive an electric car drive more or less carefully than those with a petrol car.
– But in a survey from 2022, 32 percent of those who switched to an electric car answered that they drive more slowly or more carefully than before. No one answered that they drive faster or less carefully.
In the EU there is a requirement that all electric cars, hybrids and plug-in hybrids manufactured as of July 1, 2019 must sound at a certain volume when driving below 20 km per hour.