Are EVs Recalled More Often Than Gas Cars? What NHTSA Data Shows

Every few months there’s a fresh headline: another EV recall, another “EVs aren’t ready” comment thread. Ask most people whether EVs get recalled more than gas cars and you’ll get a confident answer either way — usually based on whichever headline they saw last. The actual data does say EVs carry a higher recall rate than gas cars, but the more useful story is in the “why” and in which recalls actually matter, not the raw number.

Key Numbers

• An Axios analysis of Sedgwick recall-management data found EVs made up about 1% of all US recalled vehicles from 2017–mid-2022 while representing no more than ~0.4% of vehicles on the road in that period — roughly 2.5x overrepresented.
• J.D. Power’s 2024 Initial Quality Study measured 266 problems per 100 EVs vs 180 per 100 gas/diesel vehicles — and EV/PHEV owners visited the dealer for repairs at 3x the rate of gas-vehicle owners.
• A single 2024 Hyundai charging-control-unit recall (NHTSA 24V-868) covered 145,235 vehicles across the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, and three Genesis models — for a fault in the same 12V charging system tied to why EVs get stranded.
• Of 93 “park outside” fire-risk recalls issued since 2021 (the most severe recall category), only 38 involved EVs/hybrids, covering 662,000 vehicles — versus 44 gas-only campaigns covering 4.6 million vehicles.
• In 2024, Tesla resolved 99.23% of its recalled vehicles via over-the-air software update, no dealership visit required — a pattern still rare industry-wide.
• Most EV-specific recalls trace to new subsystems (battery management, charging control units, ADAS software) rather than the drivetrain itself.

Short Answer

Yes — by most measures, EVs are recalled more often, per vehicle sold, than gas cars. Independent analyses from Sedgwick/Axios and J.D. Power both put EVs meaningfully above the gas-car baseline. But “recall” doesn’t mean what it used to: a growing share are software fixes pushed overnight with no shop visit, and the recalls with the highest safety severity (spontaneous-fire risk) still skew toward gas and diesel engines by total vehicles affected.

The Headline Number: EVs Recalled at a Higher Rate

The clearest documented comparison comes from Axios, working with recall-management firm Sedgwick. Looking at 2017 through mid-2022, EVs and plug-in hybrids accounted for roughly 1% of all US vehicles recalled, while making up no more than about 0.4% of the vehicles actually on the road in that window — meaning EVs were involved in recalls at more than double their share of the fleet. Sedgwick’s Wayne Mitchell attributed this directly to how much new, untested technology ships in a typical EV: infotainment systems, software-controlled door handles, driver-assist features, and battery-management electronics that simply don’t exist on a comparable gas car.

That pattern shows up again in ownership-experience data. J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Initial Quality Study, based on nearly 100,000 owner responses, recorded 266 problems per 100 EVs against 180 per 100 gas and diesel vehicles — and for the first time, the study incorporated real dealership repair-visit data, finding EV and PHEV owners went in for service at three times the rate of gas-vehicle owners. Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings echo the same conclusion from a different angle: electric SUVs ranked as the least reliable vehicle category it tracks, driven mostly by electronics, climate-control, and trim issues that have nothing to do with the motor or battery pack itself.

Why the Rate Is Higher — the Actual Mechanism

This isn’t really a story about batteries being unsafe. It’s a story about vehicle age and complexity. Three things stack together:

• Newer platforms, less manufacturing history. A gas engine and transmission have been refined for over a century; most EV platforms are on their first or second generation. Manufacturing defects that get caught and fixed on a mature platform show up as recalls on a new one.
• More electronic subsystems that can independently fail. A battery-management system, a charging control unit, an over-the-air update pipeline, and driver-assist software are all additional points of potential defect that a basic gas car simply doesn’t have — each one is a separate thing that can trigger its own recall.
• Smaller sales volumes make the rate more sensitive. A 145,000-vehicle recall barely moves the needle against Ford’s multi-million-unit F-Series fleet, but the same absolute number hits much harder as a percentage of a smaller EV nameplate’s total sales — which is part of why rate comparisons (not raw recall counts) are the fair way to look at this.

Case Study: The Hyundai/Genesis Charging Unit Recall

NHTSA recall 24V-868, filed in November 2024, is a useful real example of what an EV-specific recall actually looks like in practice. It covers 2022–2024 Ioniq 5, 2023–2025 Ioniq 6, and three Genesis electrified models — 145,235 vehicles in the US. The fault is in the Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU), the component that steps high-voltage power down to charge the vehicle’s small 12V battery. When the ICCU’s internal transistor fails, the 12V battery stops charging and the car enters a fail-safe mode that gradually cuts drive power, up to and including a full loss of propulsion while underway — NHTSA’s stated concern is the increased crash risk from losing power mid-drive. As of the most recent completion data, roughly 92% of affected vehicles have had the fix applied.

This ties directly into a pattern we’ve covered before: it’s almost always the 12V system, not the traction battery, that causes EVs the most day-to-day grief — see our full breakdown of why a $150 lead-acid battery strands more EVs than anything in the main pack. A software-monitored complaint dataset backs this up: one 2026 analysis of NHTSA complaint volume found the Ioniq 5 logged 587 complaints in the first eight months of the year, with 477 of them specifically citing the electrical system — consistent with the ICCU issue still surfacing in the field well after the original recall.

But the Highest-Severity Recalls Still Skew Toward Gas Cars

Here’s the part that complicates a simple “EVs are riskier” conclusion. NHTSA’s “park outside” label is reserved for its most serious recall category — vehicles that can spontaneously catch fire even while parked and switched off. A Washington Post analysis of NHTSA data found 93 such recalls issued since 2021: 44 of them covered gas-and-diesel-only vehicles, totaling 4.6 million vehicles, while 38 covered EVs or hybrids, totaling only about 662,000 vehicles. By campaign count the split is close to even; by vehicles actually affected, gas-only campaigns outweigh EV/hybrid ones roughly 7 to 1.

This lines up with what we found when we looked directly at EV fire statistics: EVs catch fire far less often per 100,000 vehicles sold than gas or hybrid vehicles do. The recall-rate gap and the fire-risk gap are measuring two different things — one is “how often does a defect get flagged,” the other is “how often does that defect actually cause a fire” — and an EV can score worse on the first while scoring dramatically better on the second.

What “Recall” Increasingly Means for an EV

The word “recall” still conjures a letter in the mail and a half-day at the dealership, but that’s decreasingly true for EVs specifically. Reuters-compiled NHTSA data showed that of the roughly 5.1 million Tesla vehicles covered by recalls in 2024, 99.23% were resolved purely through an over-the-air software update — no service center visit at all. That’s an extreme case; most other manufacturers still require a physical repair for the large majority of their recalls. But it means a raw recall count can overstate real-world inconvenience for the EVs that do lean on OTA fixes, since NHTSA legally has to call a rolling-stop software tweak a “recall” even when the fix takes the driver zero effort.

Check Your Own Exposure

What to Actually Do With This Information

• Check your VIN directly at NHTSA.gov/recalls — not a car-buying site’s summary — before assuming your specific vehicle is or isn’t affected by anything you’ve read.
• If you’re buying used, a completed recall is a good sign, not a red flag — it means a known defect was actually fixed. Our used-EV buying checklist covers what else to verify beyond recall status.
• Don’t equate “more recalls” with “less safe.” As the fire-risk comparison above shows, a higher recall rate and a higher real-world danger rate aren’t the same measurement.
• A completed recall doesn’t restore full value on its own — if you’re weighing a total-loss claim after an accident, our total-loss threshold calculator explains how a recalled part (or its cost to source under current import tariffs) can factor into that math separately.

FAQ

Does a recall mean my car is unsafe to drive right now?
Not automatically. NHTSA recalls range from urgent stop-driving notices to minor labeling or software corrections. Read the specific “Safety Consequence” language on your notice, or look it up directly on NHTSA’s site, rather than assuming from the word “recall” alone.

Why do EVs from smaller manufacturers seem to get recalled so often?
Partly volume math (a smaller total fleet makes each recall a bigger percentage) and partly genuine growing pains — newer companies and newer platforms haven’t had decades to catch manufacturing defects before they reach owners.

Are Tesla’s frequent “recalls” actually a bad sign?
Not necessarily. Tesla’s recall count looks high partly because it resolves an unusually large share of them — over 99% in 2024 — through free software updates with no owner action required, something NHTSA still legally has to label a “recall” even when nothing physically changes about the car.

Should a recall history change whether I buy a used EV?
A completed, well-documented recall repair is generally a neutral-to-positive sign. What matters more is whether the specific vehicle you’re looking at has had the fix applied — check the VIN directly rather than judging the model by its recall count alone.

Is this the same thing as EV fire risk?
No, and that’s the point of this article. EVs have a higher recall rate but a lower per-vehicle fire rate than gas cars — the two statistics measure different things and shouldn’t be substituted for each other.

The Short Version

EVs really are recalled more often than gas cars, per vehicle sold — that’s consistent across recall-tracking data (Sedgwick/Axios) and owner-reported reliability data (J.D. Power), and it’s mostly explained by newer platforms carrying more new, independently fallible electronics than a mature gas drivetrain does. But raw recall counts overstate the real-world burden for EVs that resolve most of their recalls through a free overnight software update, and the highest-severity fire-risk recalls still trace mostly back to gas and diesel vehicles by total vehicles affected. The honest takeaway isn’t “EVs are dangerous” or “recalls don’t matter” — it’s to check your own VIN at NHTSA.gov, read what the specific recall actually requires, and judge the individual vehicle in front of you rather than a headline about the category.

About the author: Written by Shurah, who researches and writes independently on the real cost of EV ownership — charging, maintenance, and total cost of ownership — backed by primary data and original calculations rather than recycled lists.