16 December 2025 – Dominant misinformation narratives about electric vehicles (EVs) vary across contexts in the Mediterranean, broadly falling under three primary false claims: that EVs are unsafe, that climate policies are harmful and that science on EVs is untrustworthy, a new report published by EFCSN members, Faktograf (Croatia) and Raskrinkavanje (Montenegro) finds. The report explores EV-related misinformation narratives in six Mediterranean countries using the EuroClimateCheck database, cross referencing the dominant narratives with country-level indicators to search for possible contributing factors driving dominant misinformation in each context.
Fact-checks included in the analysis addressed claims such as that electric vehicles pollute more than petrol-powered vehicles in Greece and that EVs are causing pressure to the Dutch power grid. They also debunk decontextualized or fake content such as a video of an electric car supposedly exploding while charging in Spain (it was actually a methane gas vehicle) and a video of an EV seeming to catch fire (it was actually set on fire) in Montenegro.
This exploration allowed the report authors to evaluate the quantity of fact-checks about EVs fact-checked in each country and pick out the most common narratives. By cross-referencing this information with the country-level indicators related to public trust in institutions, EV adoption, and car reliance, some preliminary suggestions about why certain narratives dominate in some contexts were made.
The dominant narrative in Spain, Italy, Croatia and Montenegro is related to false claims questioning the safety and reliability of EVs. In Greece, science-skepital claims dominate, which could be related to moderate EV uptake, limited infrastructure, and the generally low public trust in institutions. Greeks may be more likely to question experts’ opinions on EVs and are increasingly exposed to EVs, creating a context for misinformation proliferation. France has similarly low public trust in institutions but a high adoption rate for EVs and strong railway infrastructure, so this high familiarity with EVs, but distrust of institutions may explain why claims about climate policies dominate.
Ultimately the report suggests that this variation between each country indicates that communication strategies to counter EV-related misinformation must be tailored to each national context and stage of transition to EVs.
The report is the final of three reports investigating transportation-related misinformation across Europe using the EuroClimateCheck database. The findings from this report reinforce previous findings in a report by EFCSN members Science Feedback (France) and Newtral (Spain) that misinformation narratives about transportation broadly do not rely on outright climate denialism, but rather strategic doubt about the effectiveness of efforts to halt it.
