A new report from Mitchell says claims frequency for repairable, collision-damaged battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rose 3.94 per cent in Canada in the second quarter of 2024. This, while BEV sales dropped to 9.2 per cent of new car sales, down from 10 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023. The claims frequency figures are a 39 per cent year-over-year increase.  

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) sales, meanwhile, grew 75 per cent in the first four months of 2024. Repairable PHEVs collision claims in the first quarter of 2024 were up 27 per cent over the second quarter of 2023 to 1.28 per cent of all first quarter collision claims.  

Mild hybrid electric vehicles 

Finally, mild hybrid electric vehicles (MHEVs) which combine an internal combustion engine (ICE) with a small electric battery, saw claims frequency of 3.49 per cent in Canada last quarter, an increase of 28 per cent when compared to the second quarter of 2023. MHEVs in Canada are reportedly 7.5 per cent costlier to repair when compared to ICE vehicles.  

“Total loss frequency between BEVs and 2021 model year and newer ICE vehicles continues to exhibit striking similarity,” the researchers write in the report, Plugged-In: EV Collision Insights. “Canadian BEVs were written off 7.24 per cent of the time (down three per cent from Q1 2024 and up 44 per cent from Q2 2023). Newer ICE vehicles – comparable to BEVs in their complexity and cost to repair – totalled at a frequency of 9.45 per cent in the U.S. and 8.52 per cent in Canada.”