Hybrid cars improve road accident rates by 18%.

Hybrid cars improve road accident rates by 18% compared to combustion vehicles. This is according to the latest annual study carried out by LeasePlan's Road Safety team, which highlights that hybrid energy technology is demonstrating better accident performance than combustion vehicles.

Thus, a hybrid vehicle has to cover 461,292 kilometres to have an accident involving third party liability, whether due to a collision between vehicles or any other type of accident. On the other hand, a diesel or petrol vehicle has driven 394,555 and 384,452 kilometres, respectively, before an accident on the road.

For this study, which gathers all the data produced during the year 2020, more than 12,000 accidents of the different companies to which the company supplies its fleet have been analysed; a volume that, as a consequence of the pandemic, has also been reduced by 22%, fundamentally due to the lack of activity during the confinement.

The report concludes that "the lower the emissions, the lower the risk of accidents". This is one of the main indicators that the LeasePlan Road Safety team highlights in the leasing sector. The aim of the study is to analyse all driving risks and the different types of vehicles, with the aim of applying measures and offering the necessary recommendations to customers to reduce the number of accidents per year.

According to Pedro Fernández, head of the Road Safety Group of the Vehicle Technical Department, "the perception of a calmer driving style in hybrid vehicles is confirmed, resulting in a 18% better accident rate. Bearing in mind the monopoly that the human factor represents in the causes of accidents, it is essential that the vehicles are capable of providing a more relaxed driving, together with greater assistance from the technology (ADAS) that hybrids have".

The more than 3,500 hybrid vehicles in the LeasePlan fleet have grown exponentially in recent years, in pursuit of a clear commitment to sustainability and emissions reduction. It should be noted that this study has shown that as emissions increase, accident indicators worsen: frequency, culpability and seriousness of accidents, both in terms of material damage and injuries.

More than half of the fleet is below 120 g/km of CO2. A vehicle that exceeds this emission limit increases the accident risk by 40% compared to cars with lower emissions.