Pass rate
94.2%
Above average — 3.0 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 2,554 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £37–£87
2021 Volkswagen E-Up MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 16,535 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
63.4% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 94.2% pass · this year
- Avoid 2022 93.8% pass
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 0.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 93.9%
- Typical mileage
- 17k mi
The 2021 Volkswagen E-Up MOT pass rate is 94.2% of its MOT tests — 3.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 63.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen E-Up does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.2× the national share
Tyres make up 63.4% of everything recorded on the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up, against 19.8% nationally — 43.6 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 91.2% and this one manages 94.2% — 3.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 26% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Volkswagen E-Up? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 3.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 93.9%. The median 2021 Volkswagen E-Up in this dataset had covered 16,535 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.2% of the time, April–September 94.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 1.53% of tests.
- 2,554 recorded tests behind this page.
- 94.2% overall pass rate, 93.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen E-Up, the average is 94.1% — best year 2021 (94.2%), worst 2022 (93.8%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 2,554
- Typical mileage (median)
- 16,535 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen E-Up
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the E-Up MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the E-Up
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 567 | 93.5% |
| East of England | 330 | 95.5% |
| South West | 279 | 97.1% |
| East Midlands | 255 | 92.5% |
| Yorkshire | 238 | 92.0% |
| West Midlands | 212 | 96.7% |
| North West | 197 | 94.4% |
| Scotland | 183 | 89.1% |
| London | 119 | 95.0% |
| North East | 88 | 96.6% |
| Wales | 86 | 97.7% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2021 E-Up
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2021 E-Up
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the wipers and washers 0.9% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the lights 0.7% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 0.7% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2021 E-Up through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £37–£87 — and 26% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £37–£87
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 26%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,554 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the E-Up, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.8% to 94.2% — a spread of 0.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 94.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 94.2%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 93.8% has a cut in excess of the…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2021 cars with a similar record
- Toyota C-Hr 94.2%
- Toyota Gr YARIS Circuit 94.2%
- Volvo XC40 Inscript Pro 94.3%
- Land Rover Defender Hard Top 94.1%
- Toyota Aygo 94.0%
- Audi Q2 94.4%
Closest pass rates among 2021 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 1,247 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 795 | 63.40% | 19.76% | +43.64 |
| Non-component advisories | 114 | 9.10% | 4.18% | +4.92 |
| Brakes | 98 | 7.80% | 20.89% | −13.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 81 | 6.50% | 12.21% | −5.71 |
| Visibility | 79 | 6.30% | 4.97% | +1.33 |
| Suspension | 37 | 3.00% | 20.98% | −17.98 |
| Road Wheels | 15 | 1.20% | 0.75% | +0.45 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 14 | 1.10% | 0.82% | +0.28 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 11 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3 | 0.20% | 5.57% | −5.37 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.90% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.74% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.70% | £80–200 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.67% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.55% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.47% | £8–22 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.43% | £45–95 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.31% | £3–15 |
| Buckle not functioning as intended Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.27% | £40–120 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.8% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 10.6% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.3% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2,205 | 94.8% | 15,437 mi |
| 30-60k | 332 | 91.6% | 38,050 mi |
| 60-90k | 11 | 81.8% | 67,155 mi |
| 90-120k | 6 | 50.0% | 104,517 mi |
Source: 2,554 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2021 E-Up MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Volkswagen E-Up?
94.2% of the 2,554 2021 Volkswagen E-Up tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 93.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Volkswagen E-Up?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.53%), wipers blade defective (0.90%), headlamp aim too low (0.74%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.8% of the time, falling to 50.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Volkswagen E-Up in this dataset had covered 16,535 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Volkswagen E-Up MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.