EVs were written off too soon — Toyota stays on top, but Tesla breaks into the long-haul club

A new iSeeCars study of more than 174 million vehicles shows Tesla is twice as likely as Subaru to reach 250,000 miles. Toyota and Lexus still lead.

Toyota and Lexus have once again confirmed their reputation as brands people buy “for the long haul”. But a fresh iSeeCars study delivered an unexpected riser: Tesla. The brand’s EVs turned out to be twice as likely to cover 402,000 km as a Subaru.

Analysts looked at more than 174 million vehicles and calculated the probability of reaching 250,000 miles, or about 402,000 km. Toyota took first place with 17.8%. Next come Lexus — 12.8%, Honda — 10.8% and Acura — 7.2%. Only these four brands beat the industry average of 4.8%.

Tesla took sixth place alongside GMC: both brands are rated at a 4.6% chance of hitting that mileage. That’s higher than Chevrolet, Cadillac, Mazda, Ram, Ford, Nissan, Subaru, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW and Audi. Subaru sits at 2.3%, Porsche at 0.5%, BMW at 0.4% and Audi at 0.3%.

Tesla’s result has a simple explanation. An EV has no internal-combustion engine, no oil, no belts, no timing chains, no injectors and dozens of other parts that age in a gasoline car. The battery is still an expensive risk, but the architecture itself gives fewer typical reasons for a major overhaul.

At the bottom of the ranking are Land Rover at 0.1%, with Jaguar, MINI and Maserati posting essentially zero. The old stereotypes about reliability haven’t disappeared, but Tesla is now breaking a different stereotype — the one that says an electric car isn’t built for a very long life.