Electric vehicles
Electric MOT & servicing in Swindon — and the lifts to take the weight
An electric car takes the same MOT as a petrol one with the emissions test removed. Everything else applies in full — and because the battery makes it heavier, the parts that wear are the ones the MOT looks hardest at.
£54 electric car & small van · £58.60 heavy electric van to 4.25 t. No VAT.
Check your vehicle
Put your registration in and we’ll confirm it’s electric
This page books electric vehicles only, so we check the registration against DVSA before anything is booked. It tells you the MOT class and the price at the same time.
Built for the weight
An EV is heavier. Our equipment already goes further.
A battery pack adds a few hundred kilos to a car and the best part of a tonne to a van. That weight is the whole reason EV prices differ here, and it is the reason some workshops turn the heavier ones away. It has never been a problem in this workshop: the MOT lift is rated to 5 tonnes and the servicing lift to 6 tonnes, because we have always taken motorhomes and horseboxes as well as cars.
MOT lift rated to 5 tonnes
The heaviest thing the new rules will send us is a 4.25 tonne electric van. The MOT lift takes 5 tonnes, so that is not close to the limit — it goes up like anything else, and the inspection happens at working height instead of on the floor.
Workshop lift rated to 6 tonnes
Servicing runs on a separate, heavier lift — 6 tonnes. It is the same lift that takes 6-tonne motorhomes, which is why a heavy EV is an ordinary job here rather than something we have to work around.
Room to get it in
Up to 3.66 m high, 2.84 m wide between the pillars with the mirrors folded, and 9.5 m long. Long-wheelbase electric vans and high-roof conversions fit.
We leave the high-voltage system alone
An MOT does not open up the traction battery or its cabling, and we do not pretend otherwise. What is checked is that the high-voltage system is intact and safe from the outside — orange cabling undamaged, nothing exposed, isolation where it should be.
Which MOT class
How an EV is tested
There is no separate “EV” MOT class. Your electric vehicle is tested in the same class as the petrol or diesel version of it — so pick the one that matches and it books straight through at the electric price.
Electric cars
£54Class IV
A Class 4 MOT, the same checklist as any petrol or diesel car with the emissions test taken out. Dearer than the £45 petrol equivalent for one reason: the battery makes it heavier, and weight is what wears brakes and suspension.
Electric vans up to 3.5 t
£54Class IV
Class 4, the same checklist as a small petrol or diesel van, and the same EV price as a car for the same reason — it weighs more than the version it replaced.
Electric vans 3.5–4.25 t
£58.60Class VII
From 1 June 2026 a zero-emission van between 3,500 kg and 4,250 kg is a standard Class 7 MOT — no separate heavy-goods test. Our MOT lift is rated well past 4.25 tonnes, so it comes to us like any other van.
Electric motorcycles
£29Class I / II
Class 1 / 2, the same as a petrol bike. Brakes, lights, frame, tyres — the full inspection.
What’s actually checked
On the day
- Brakes — including how the friction brakes take over from regen, and whether they are wearing evenly
- High-voltage safety from the outside — orange cabling intact, no exposed conductors, isolation correct
- Tyres — EVs run heavier and hotter, so load rating and wear pattern both matter
- Suspension and steering — more weight, faster wear, and it shows here first
- Lights, wipers, mirrors, structure, VIN — the full Class 4 or Class 7 checklist
- No emissions test — EVs are exempt from the tailpipe check, and nothing else is waived