Electric vehicles are “almost double” the weight of people carriers in the 20th century, threatening the integrity of old car parks. 

That’s according to structural engineer Chris Whapples, who said electric vehicles have “changed so much in the last 10 years”. 

“They've become bigger, they become heavier,” he told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“They're absolutely heavier than those car parks were designed for. 

“Some of those car parks are probably in quite poor structural condition – as they get older, they get weaker.” 

In the 1970s, Mr Whapples said, the typical “family saloon” would have weighed 980kg, just under a tonne. 

“If you look at, say, a Tesla Model Three - which is an average family saloon electric vehicle – that's weighing 1800kg, which is just under two tonnes,” he said. 

“So, they're almost doubled in weight – and that doesn't have to include the passengers and the luggage.” 

'High-end' electric vehicles

Car parks designed in the 1960s and 1970s were originally designed for cars weighing up to 2.5 tonnes, including passenger and luggage. 

“Now some of the high-end vehicles, the Range Rovers and the executive saloons, are weighing in excess of three tonnes,” Mr Whapples said. 

“It means the safety is being eroded away. 

“The problem is you only need one overloaded vehicle to cause an incident – it could be anywhere within a ramp or within one particular parking bay.” 

The weight of an electric vehicle’s battery is the largest concern, although manufacturers often offset the weight of other parts of the car. 

Mr Whapples said, however, there is little manufacturers can do to modify larger, high-end cars. 

“That battery can be weighing half a tonne,” he said. 

“It doesn’t add 500 kilogrammes to the whole vehicle because manufacturers try and shave the weight off elsewhere. 

An EV being charged. Image: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Sipa USA)

“But the shavings in weight are very small compared to the weight of the battery.” 

Structural engineers such as Mr Whapples are now designing new requirements for car parks to accommodate the increased weight of cars such as EVs, including increasing weight capacity. 

He also suggested heavier cars could be encouraged to remain on the ground floor of car parks while lighter cars go upstairs – although he said this could be difficult to actualise and enforce.