The ADAC road patrol service came to the rescue 3.413 million times in the past year in the event of car breakdowns. That’s 2.3 percent fewer than in 2021, when roadside assistance called out 3.492 million times. This emerges from the current roadside assistance balance of the automobile club. The decline is probably due to the comparatively mild winter months of January and February 2022.
The number of assistance services for electric cars has roughly doubled. After around 25,000 calls in 2021, the ADAC breakdown helpers had to take care of broken down electric and hybrid vehicles around 52,000 times in 2022.
As in previous years, problems with the car battery were the most common cause in 2022, accounting for 43.2 percent of all breakdowns. In the previous year, this proportion was 46.2 percent. The starter battery was also the most common cause in broken-down electric cars in 2022, in more than half of the breakdowns. “The 12-volt starter battery is necessary to activate the vehicle’s high-voltage system before driving off and to supply consumers such as control units, lighting or infotainment with energy,” explains ADAC. Rather rare causes of breakdowns in electric cars were according to ADAC specific components for this type of car such as battery, electric motor or charging technology.
E-cars are also getting older
The increase in assistance for electric cars can be explained above all by the fact that more and more of them are now registered in Germany. At the beginning of 2023, the Federal Motor Transport Authority registered 1,013,009 battery-electric vehicles (BEV) in the car fleet, plus 864,712 plug-in hybrids (PHEV). A year earlier it was 618,460 BEV and 565,956 PHEV. “In addition, many e-cars from previous generations are now getting to an age where the vulnerability of combustion models is also increasing. This is also reflected in the number of breakdowns,” writes the ADAC.
In the overall breakdown statistics, breakdowns on the engine or engine management took second place in the list of causes with 23.8 percent. These include above all problems with the injection, ignition or sensors. At 10.4 percent, the third most common reason that required the help of the road patrol was problems with the generator, the starter, the on-board network or the lighting.
(anw)
