Price of car repairs rises in France due to electric vehicles
Maintenance costs are up by 25% since 2020
Many mechanic may lose their jobs as EVs need less maintenance
Iryna Inshyna/Shutterstock
Electric and hybrid cars in France cost much more to repair than their petrol and diesel counterparts, resulting in a 25% rise in garage prices since 2020, figures from insurers show.
The Sécurité et Réparation Automobiles (SRA) unit of the trade body France Assureurs has been gathering figures using accident claim cases since 2020.
Its latest report showed that in 2024, petrol/electric hybrid vehicles were 15% more expensive to repair than average, and battery-only vehicles were 14.3% more expensive.
The main reason for the expense is down to the weight of electric vehicles.
“Hybrid and electric vehicles are significantly heavier than other vehicles of the same size, so when they are in crashes the weight causes more damage, and the car is consequently more expensive to repair,” said Rodolphe Pouvreau, manager of SRA.
Read more: Why repairing your car in France is becoming increasingly expensive
EV spare parts
Another factor is that electric and hybrid vehicles tend to be newer and more technologically advanced.
Spare parts are more expensive and, in 2024, accounted for 52% of the cost of repairs, according to figures from specialist consulting firm Facts&Figures.
Some of the data from SRA confirms this; Mr Pouvreau said the average cost of a wing mirror replacement for an electric vehicle (EV) is €636, one-and-a-quarter times more expensive than for a petrol car. Meanwhile, windscreen related claims on EVs cost an average of €1,077, one-and-a-third times more expensive than petrol cars.
Fancy design features such as strip lights between headlights, used as running lights, can also make the wallet weep, costing between €1,000 and €1,500 to replace.
The batteries themselves remain expensive. They are often replaced after an accident, at an average cost of between 40% and 60% of a new car’s list price, if there is the slightest suspicion they might have been damaged.
Batteries in Tesla EVs and in many Chinese-manufactured cars are designed so they cannot be repaired, only recycled. On some European EVs, however, it is possible for a garage to remove the battery and send it to a specialist centre for repair.
Read more: How your Crit’Ait vignette rating correlates with insurance costs
Soaring EV insurance premiums
Insurance firms are starting to include the higher cost of repairing electric and hybrid vehicles in their prices. Broker Les Furets said premiums were 13% more expensive for a hybrid in 2025 than last year, and 20% more expensive for EVs, while the average insurance price rise was 10%.
It is likely, too, that the spread of EVs will have a knock-on effect on the network of independent, agency and concession garages which have developed over the years in France.
While almost all apprentices now receive training on EVs, and car makers send qualified technicians from larger garages on training courses, it is predicted that EVs will see the number of mechanics employed in garages fall by between 1,500 and 3,000 a year until 2035.
The Observatoire des metiers des services de l’automobile (Anfa) based its prediction on the fact that EVs require less routine maintenance, not needing regular oil changes, timing belt changes or head gasket replacements.
Most affected in the short term will be concessions, which handle maintenance for cars sold with maintenance ‘packs’ in their first couple of years. Anfa predicts that mechanics who leave to take retirement will not be replaced.
