Current TÜV report

How the ten most common e-cars fare

The brakes are particularly frequently criticized in electric cars.

(Bild: Uli Sonntag/SPX)

Overall, electric cars perform just as well or just as poorly as petrol and diesel cars in the TÜV main inspection (HU, equivalent to the Austrian "Pickerl"). However, one bestseller regularly fails. And electric cars tend to have certain defects.

The VW E-Golf has the best TÜV record among electric cars in Germany. With a defect rate of 3.4 percent at the first general inspection, the compact electric car also comes in a good ninth place in the overall ranking across all drive types, according to the TÜV Report 2025. The testing organization evaluated the HU results of the ten most common electric vehicles.

The Hyundai Kona Elektro follows in second place with a defect rate of 4 percent, the Mini Cooper in third place has significant defects in 4.4 percent of the tests, and the VW ID.3 is also good with 5.0 percent.

The VW ID.4/ID.5, Peugeot 208, VW e-up, Opel E-Corsa and Renault Zoe landed in the broad mediocre range with rates between 5.9 and 8.9 percent.

Tesla's Model 3 came bottom of the rankings with a defect rate of 14.2 percent. In the overall ranking of all passenger cars, the mid-size sedan came in 111th place.

Overall, the electric vehicles performed neither better nor worse than comparable vehicles with combustion engines. The driving profile is now also comparable for both drive types due to the increase in range of electric cars.

However, the electric cars exhibited certain typical defects: the high battery weight places a particularly heavy load on the wheel suspension, while the mechanical brakes are understressed due to the primary use of the engine brake, which can lead to defects on the brake disk that are relevant for the HU.