FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSToyota Proace
Top three failure systems, annotated from 10 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.
The Toyota Proace beats the petrol fleet at every age it has been tested
208 inspections in a single year make the PROACE a modestly documented electric car in the data. Brakes cause 35.7% of its failures; brakes take 1.9× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
First-time test findings
The three-year picture
AT THREE YEARS OLD4.7%
PROACE failure rate. Petrol cars of the same age fail 8.2%.
ALL ELECTRIC CARS12.0%
All electric cars in the data.
At three years old the Toyota Proace fails 4.7% of the time, under the 8.2% of a petrol car the same age. Brakes cause 35.7% of its failures.
FIGURE 2 // BRAKE ASSEMBLY CUTAWAY2 certificates in 2024
The brake that seizes from not being used
Brakes take 35.7% of the defects that fail this car, 1.9× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "Brake disc or drum excessively weakened, insecure or fractured", recorded 2 times in 2024.
SECTION // BRAKES CONCENTRATION
Where it concentrates
The PROACE stays under the petrol fleet at every age we can measure. What it does fail on is unusually concentrated.
Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.
What to check
Check tyre age and tread across the full width, inner edge included. Electric cars wear tyres faster; a cheap mismatched set on a used car tells you how it was run. Ask when the brakes were last stripped and cleaned. Regenerative braking barely wears the pads, so discs and calipers corrode and seize instead. Trivial to fix, but a car advertised with worn wipers and a fresh failure certificate tells you how it was maintained. Ask for the full MOT history by registration on the free DVSA service: advisories are next year's failures.
3 inspection points:
✓ Tyre inner-edge wear and age
✓ Rear caliper drag and disc lip
✓ Wipers and washers
FIGURE 3 // FAILURE RATE BY AGEvs petrol, diesel and all electric cars
Points hidden where fewer than 50 cars of that age were tested. Dashed lines are the same-age petrol and diesel fleets.
Data sheet
- Inspections
- 208
- Passed
- 190
- Failed
- 10
- Passed after repair
- 8
- Failure rate
- 4.8% (all EV 12.0%)
- Average age
- 3.0 years
- Best year
- 3 yrs · 4.7%
- Worst year
- 3 yrs · 4.7%
- Top cause
- Brakes 35.7%
TABLE 1 // WHAT FAILS, BY SYSTEMshare of failing defects
| System | This car (mark = petrol/diesel) | Share | vs petrol/diesel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 21.4% | in line | |
| Suspension | 7.1% | 1.9× less | |
| Brakes | 35.7% | 1.9× more | |
| Visibility | 14.3% | in line | |
| Lighting | 21.4% | 1.3× more | |
| Steering | 0.0% | in line | |
| Body | 0.0% | in line |
TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE
- A tyre seriously damaged2
- Stop lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning2
- Brake disc or drum excessively weakened, insecure or fractured2
- Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen2
- Lamp showing red light to the front, white light to the rear or has heavily reduced light intensity1
- Brakes imbalance across an axle such that the braking effort from any wheel is less than 70% of the maximum effort recorded from the other wheel on the same axle.1
Wording as printed by the tester, from the DVSA inspection manual.
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Where it holds up
- Suspension fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (7.1% of defects vs 13.6%)
- Steering fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 3.1%)
- Body fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 4.1%)
- At three years old it fails 4.7% of the time, below the 8.2% of petrol cars the same age
Where it fails
- Brakes take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (35.7% vs 18.7%)
VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded
- PROACE ICON EV180
- PROACE CITY ICON EV25
- PROACE2
- PROACE CITY ACTIVE1
OWNER REPORTS // MATCHED TO RECORDED DEFECTS0 read · 0 matched
No owner discussion has been matched to this car's recorded defects yet. Reports are re-collected every quarter; the figures on this page do not depend on them.
Summaries written by us, never quotes; every entry links to its source. Owner reports have no denominator and never feed the failure rate.
SIMILAR CARS IN THE DATAclosest rate and age, other brands
Lexus UX4.4% fail · 1,019 testsKia EV65.2% fail · 1,399 testsVolkswagen ABT4.2% fail · 263 testsPeugeot Expert3.3% fail · 1,137 tests
OTHER TOYOTA ELECTRIC CARS
Three things the data shows
- 208 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
- Brakes take 1.9× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
- It ranks 10 of 81 electric cars by first-time failure rate.
LIMITS // WHAT THE INSPECTION DOES NOT TELL YOU
No battery health, no motor, no charging performance. The test covers brakes, suspension, steering, tyres, lights, visibility and structure. A car with a badly degraded battery passes as long as it stops and steers. Read this page as evidence about the chassis, not the powertrain. Cars are tested from their third year, so the newest model years are missing; every figure carries its sample size for that reason. Full methodology.
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