German TUV published the 2026 reliability report and, for the first time, electric vehicles were comprehensively evaluated. While most EVs proved just as reliable as their gas-powered brethren, the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y were the outliers. The Model Y ranked dead last in reliability among 2-3 year old vehicles, with the highest defect rate recorded in a decade (17.3%).

 

Wisdom says that electric vehicles should be more reliable than gas cars because they have fewer moving components. There's no transmission in most EVs, although some performance EVs like the Porsche Taycan do feature a two-gear transmission. The electric motor has only one moving part, the rotor, thus eliminating thousands of components that can brake or wear in a combustion engine.