EV servicing costs explained

Start with the prices the makers publish. Kia says a three-year e-Care plan starts at £389 for an EV6 and £329 for a Niro EV, which is £110 to £130 a year. MG launched its electric service plan at £6 a month against £14 a month for a petrol MG, which is £72 a year against £168; those are January 2022 prices and the only maker I found that publishes the two side by side. The rest, Hyundai and Vauxhall included, want your registration before they'll quote.

The fast-fit chains fill the gap. Kwik Fit charges £227.95 for its EV service, every two years or 20,000 miles, so about £115 a year. Its Corsa page puts a petrol Corsa's full service from £246.95 and an interim from £186.95, and a petrol car wants one of those every year. The electric Corsa's service on the same page is from £230.95, every other year.

So the gap isn't the price of a visit, which is much the same. It's that the EV makes half as many visits. Over three years that's roughly £350 on the EV against £600 to £750 on the petrol car, which is the number I use on the whole running-cost page.

I've done a lot of petrol services, and most of the bill is things you drain, unscrew and throw away: oil, oil filter, air filter, plugs, a belt every few years. An EV has none of them. Kia's e-Care list is tyre rotation, brake cleaning, a battery state-of-health report, a scan for fault codes, software updates and a health checklist. Volkswagen's ID inspection is the charging components checked for wear and corrosion, the battery's current capacity measured against its original, and the brakes, lights and tyres looked at.

Two things do get replaced on a schedule. The pollen filter, because you breathe through it. And brake fluid, usually every two years, because it absorbs water whether you brake or not. Kwik Fit's £227.95 covers both plus wheel balancing, and that's about all the consumables there are.

The battery report is the part worth reading. It's a percentage of the capacity the car left the factory with, and it's what a buyer will ask for when you sell. Keep the printout.

Kia says a full service every other year, with the battery checked more often. Volkswagen's ID range has no mileage interval at all, just an inspection every two years. Kwik Fit's EV schedule is two years or 20,000 miles. A petrol car on the same forecourts is a year or so, and the interim-plus-full pattern the chains sell is really two visits a year.

That interval is where most of the saving lives, and it's also the thing to watch on a warranty. A maker that says two years means two years: miss it and a battery claim gets harder. Put the date in the calendar when you drive the car home, because nothing under the bonnet will remind you.

The MOT is unchanged. From three years old an EV needs one every year like any other car, and the test is shorter because there's no emissions check.

Tyres are the one line an EV loses on. Michelin says tyres wear out up to 20% faster on an EV than on a petrol car, from the weight and the instant pull away from the lights. The UK MOT record backs it up in a smaller way: CarHunchwent through the 2018 to 2021 tests and found 165 tyre failures per 1,000 EV tests against 152 for petrol, 8% more, on a fleet that was younger on average. Kwik Fit makes the fair counterpoint: a tyre built for an EV wears about 30% slower than a standard one on the same car, so fit the EV tyre, even though it costs more at the till. Budget for a front pair a year or two sooner than you would on the petrol car.

Brakes go the other way, and it's the odd one. The motor does most of the slowing down, so pads and discs last years. The catch is that a brake you rarely use rusts, and rusty brakes bind, especially as they warm up, because the disc never gets hot enough to dry itself. A seized rear caliper is now the EV job I see most. The fix is free: once a week, brake properly from 40mph with the regen turned down, and get the wheels off at every service so someone looks.

The little battery, not the big one. Every EV keeps an ordinary 12-volt battery to wake the car up, and the German breakdown service ADAC found it behind 50.5% of EV callouts in 2025, against 44.6% for petrol and diesel. It's an £80 to £150 part on most cars, and the symptom is a car that won't start with a full traction battery. If it's over four years old and the car sits for days between drives, replace it before winter.

Then tyres, which I've covered, and seized brakes, which I've covered. After that it's the electronics: a charging port door, a heat pump, a screen. Inside the warranty they're free; outside it they're dealer money, and the independent garages are still catching up on EV diagnostics. The battery guide has the warranty terms by maker.

Keep the whole thing in proportion. The same ADAC data has a two-to-four-year-old EV breaking down 3.8 times per 1,000 cars a year against 9.4 for petrol and diesel. Fewer parts, fewer surprises. The bills that do come are smaller and rarer than the ones you're used to, and the insurance guide covers the one place an EV repair really does cost more.