IMI “cannot support” transition to year four MOT

The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) has said it “cannot support the transition to a 4.1.1 schedule for MoT" in a detailed response to the Department for Transport’s consultation on the matter.

The IMI response states: “It is the Institute’s position that the existing 3.1.1 be maintained until evidence is sufficient that electric vehicles are not failing MOT tests on significant dangerous defects at a greater rate than petrol cars.

“It is likely that misunderstanding the differences of the technologies leads to the increased failure rate for EVs.

“Therefore, the IMI further recommends that education is desperately needed to reduce this failure rate and subsequent threat to road safety.”

Launched on January 18, the DfT called for views on the future of MOTs in Great Britain, collecting the data by public consultation.

The DfT’s preference was to increase the date at which a first MOT is required from three to four years. The frequency would then be annual after that fourth year.

The IMI said it has taken an evidential and data led approach to responding to the DfT consultation based on 82.43 million failure and advisory items recorded in 40.3m lines of test data, which is the latest available (2021).

The organisation also carried out consumer research to ask motorists their opinion and surveyed its membership community and spoke to a number of senior stakeholders across the sector.

The IMI’s survey showed that 60% of respondents that run MOTs from their business are “very concerned” that a potential fall in MOT business will negatively impact the volume of service work to their garage.

The National Franchised Dealers Association has also previously said it is concerned that the proposed changes may not be beneficial for motorists or MOT testing centres, particularly for franchised dealers.

Sue Robinson, chief executive of the NFDA, said earlier this year: “We will be conducting a thorough investigation into the implications these changes may have. Franchise dealers will continue to ensure motorists on UK roads are as safe as possible through robust, professionally executed and frequent MOT testing regimes.

"NFDA will be responding to the consultation in due course, as well as keeping correspondence with the relevant government bodies to ensure future MOTs are conducted in a safe and fair manner.”

The IMI's "The future of MOTs" full response to the consultation can be downloaded here.

The DfT previously said it is unlikely there will be any immediate changes to the way MOT tests are carried out following the consultation.