These cars were not abandoned because their batteries failed
What was claimed
Photographs show many electric cars that were scrapped because their batteries were too expensive to replace.
Our verdict
Incorrect. These cars were scrapped because they were part of the fleet of a French business that stopped trading.
Photographs of a field filled with dozens of disused electric cars are being shared on Facebook, alongside the claim that they were scrapped because their batteries were too expensive to replace, and too difficult to dispose of.
This is not true.
Join 74,000 newsletter subscribers who trust us to check the facts
Sign up to get weekly updates on politics, immigration, health and more.
Subscribe to weekly email newsletters from Full Fact for updates on politics, immigration, health and more. Our fact checks are free to read but not to produce, so you will also get occasional emails about fundraising and other ways you can help. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy.
The pictures appear genuine, but the cars were actually part of a fleet belonging to a French car-sharing service called Autolib, which stopped trading in 2018.
The end of Autolib had nothing to do with the vehicles or their batteries. It happened when the public authorities cancelled its contract after failing to agree with the company how to cover its debts. Marie Bolloré, from the Bolloré group which owned Autolib, was quoted at the time saying that the service struggled because of the “changing mobility patterns of Parisians”.
According to reports in France, more than a thousand of the vehicles were taken to the field in Romorantin-Lanthenay, where they are waiting to be resold.
Other fact checkers, including Politifact and Snopes, have also looked into the claim that these cars were abandoned because of their batteries, and found it to be false.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because these cars were scrapped because they were part of a business that stopped trading, not because their batteries were too expensive to replace.
Was this helpful?
Full Fact fights for good, reliable information in the media, online, and in politics.