Cambridge Mobile Telematics Research into Electric Vehicle Risk Unveils Key Insights into Changes in Road Safety in an EV Future

New CMT research to be presented at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Conference shows that electric vehicles have unique risk factors from traditional vehicles

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics service provider, will share its new research findings into driving risk for electric, hybrid, and traditional vehicles in a keynote today at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Charging Into an Electrified Future Conference. The new research shows that drivers of electric vehicles exhibit acceleration risks ranging from 180% to 340% higher than when driving traditional combustion vehicles. In the keynote, CMT will answer the question of how this risk translates to safety and, ultimately, crash outcomes. The data for the research comes from millions of vehicles across the CMT DriveWell® Platform.

CMT’s presentation will focus on how the insurance industry and road safety professionals can further reduce risk by incentivizing safe driving for electric vehicle drivers. The key to reducing risk for EV drivers is a deeper understanding of the risk variables that impact safety outcomes. CMT’s research examines the differences in risk between internal combustion engines and electric vehicles across multiple variables, including driver fatigue, vehicle range, distracted driving, and speeding.

“Among the most compelling new findings are the comparisons between drivers who operate both an electric vehicle and an internal combustion vehicle, allowing for a better understanding of risk across vehicle platforms,” said Ryan McMahon, VP of Strategy for CMT. “These findings include an analysis of Tesla drivers who also operate another vehicle. These drivers are nearly 50% less likely to crash while driving their Tesla than any other vehicle they operate. We conducted the same analysis on individuals who operate a Porsche and another vehicle. In this case, we observed the opposite effect. Porsche drivers are 55% more likely to crash while driving their Porsche compared to their other vehicle.”

CMT’s keynote with Ryan McMahon, “Electric Drivers: Changes in Driver Behavior,” will be held at 8:15 AM on May 24 at the IIHS-HLDI Vehicle Research Center in Ruckersville, VA. To learn more about the event, please visit https://www.iihs.org/charging-into-an-electrified-future.

About Cambridge Mobile Telematics

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is the world’s largest telematics service provider. Its mission is to make the world’s roads and drivers safer. The company’s AI-driven platform, DriveWell®, gathers sensor data from millions of IoT devices — including smartphones, proprietary Tags, connected vehicles, dash cams, and third-party devices — and fuses them with contextual data to create a unified view of vehicle and driver behavior. Companies from personal and commercial auto insurance, automotive, rideshare, smart cities, wireless, financial services, and family safety industries use insights from CMT’s platform to power their risk assessment, safety, claims, and driver improvement programs. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with offices in Budapest, Chennai, Seattle, and Tokyo, CMT serves millions of people through 80 programs in 18 countries, including 21 of the top 25 US auto insurers.