Insurance for electric vehicles?

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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An interesting article in the Financial Times about how it's more expensive to insure electric vehicles.

I have not heard the issue raised before.

I presume it's the same in Ireland?

Electric vehicles: insurers balk at battery fires and write-offs

Higher insurance prices make EVs less attractive to consumers
www.ft.com www.ft.com


Tesla owners must be choking on their kale smoothies. Auto insurers have rapidly boosted prices for electric vehicle cover in the past year, much more than for fossil fuel cars. Indeed, John Lewis has suspended sales of its EV policies by request of French underwriter Covéa as it reassesses the cost of repairs.

Average electric car insurance costs rose 72 per cent in the year to September, compared with 29 per cent for petrol and diesel models, according to Confused.com. The price comparison site notes that premiums for Tesla Model 3s, the most quoted EV on the site, rose more than two-thirds in the past two years. In fact, Aviva withdrew insurance policies for some Tesla models earlier this year before reinstating cover a few months later.
 
Not my experience . I got an EV on Feb 2022 and I was surprised how cheap the insurance was . I went from third party policy on a very old Toyota to comprehensive on a new EV and the cost was the same . Can’t actually remember the exact amount , about €400 I think
 
Brendan Burgess said:
An interesting article in the Financial Times about how it's more expensive to insure electric vehicles.

I have not heard the issue raised before.

I presume it's the same in Ireland?

Electric vehicles: insurers balk at battery fires and write-offs

Higher insurance prices make EVs less attractive to consumers
www.ft.com www.ft.com


Tesla owners must be choking on their kale smoothies. Auto insurers have rapidly boosted prices for electric vehicle cover in the past year, much more than for fossil fuel cars. Indeed, John Lewis has suspended sales of its EV policies by request of French underwriter Covéa as it reassesses the cost of repairs.

Average electric car insurance costs rose 72 per cent in the year to September, compared with 29 per cent for petrol and diesel models, according to Confused.com. The price comparison site notes that premiums for Tesla Model 3s, the most quoted EV on the site, rose more than two-thirds in the past two years. In fact, Aviva withdrew insurance policies for some Tesla models earlier this year before reinstating cover a few months later.
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not the case here yet, i have found EVs cheap to insure especially given the BHP, my current (over 400bhp) EV is less than 450 to insure for my wife and I.
 
I've read a few similar stories in recent time quoting Thachams and another UK company that supply repair costs data with insurers explaining higher average repair costs for EVs prompting a couple of providers there to stop insuring them for now. One of the factors quoted was insurance requirements for the repair shops when storing EVs for repair, they need to be stored 15m from any other object, and be stored for a 48 hour quarantine period before work can start.

As the move to solid state batteries at least those concerns should abate.
 
Our insurance went down about 25% when we switched to an EV. New car is worth multiples of the previous one so would have expected an increase.
 
At least my road tax went down when I bought a hybrid from €636 to €174 ,
Both 1.8cc
 
I have one more than 2 years, and its been under €400 for each of the last two renewals, annual cost, has hardly changed at all, since i bought it.

am wondering, if this only affects the 50k+ category of EV’s, which have mainly >60 kwh batteries, very high annual mileage may also affect the price, as this will eventually affect battery life, but, most EV’s come with a typical 8 year or, 160,000 battery warranty.
 
fayf said:
I have one more than 2 years, and its been under €400 for each of the last two renewals, annual cost, has hardly changed at all, since i bought it.

am wondering, if this only affects the 50k+ category of EV’s, which have mainly >60 kwh batteries, very high annual mileage may also affect the price, as this will eventually affect battery life, but, most EV’s come with a typical 8 year or, 160,000 battery warranty.
Click to expand...
Both mine have been in the 50k + category and insurance has been cheap
 
No increase for me, when we switched from diesel to electric.
And have saved more than 1000 euro in fuel costs in less than 1 year :D
 
I have noticed that the "mainstream media" have massively ramped up negative stories about EV's. The telegraph and the Sun are practically rabid and flat out lying about them.
Great Fact check website here that uses actual data to dispel a lot of this bunk!
www.carbonbrief.org

Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles - Carbon Brief

Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about electric vehicles.
www.carbonbrief.org www.carbonbrief.org

My own experience is that EV's are massively better than ICE vehicles in almost every single way, except maybe 4 times a year, when they are slightly less convenient for very long trips.
 
AJAM said:
I have noticed that the "mainstream media" have massively ramped up negative stories about EV's. The telegraph and the Sun are practically rabid and flat out lying about them.
Click to expand...
The tone of most mainstream coverage of everything has trended negatively for some time. They respond to what sells or attracts clicks.

They might be the best thing since sliced bread, but one story of a guy losing a finger in a bread slicer outsells a thousand on how sliced bread has saved millions of knife cuts.
 
AJAM said:
I have noticed that the "mainstream media" have massively ramped up negative stories about EV's. The telegraph and the Sun are practically rabid and flat out lying about them.
Great Fact check website here that uses actual data to dispel a lot of this bunk!
www.carbonbrief.org

Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles - Carbon Brief

Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about electric vehicles.
www.carbonbrief.org www.carbonbrief.org

My own experience is that EV's are massively better than ICE vehicles in almost every single way, except maybe 4 times a year, when they are slightly less convenient for very long trips.
Click to expand...
My insurance went down as well. And it's now as a company car. The Sun must be choking on their battered sausage.
 
I think the phrase about Tesla owners choking on kale smoothies gives an indication of the authors thoughts on EVs.
 
My insurance quotes got cheaper when I switched to an EV as well - somewhat surprisingly. Like for like Hybrid/Petrol vs EV in the same model (I drive a Kia e-Niro) the quotes were similar, but comparing similar cost and horsepower cars it was much cheaper.
Cheaper for me in a new Kia e-Niro than used Skoda Octavia despite the weight and horsepower differences - at least it was in Feburary 2022

I have niggling feeling that some Insurance companies haven't reacted to EVs fully yet. I had some struggle with quotes due to invalid Engine sizes in cc, having the car reg show up as a PHEV model and no interest from Insurance company in fixing that.

On news articles - It's certainly more prevalent in UK, and it seems to be clicks/engagement driven. I saw it discussed by Fully Charged Show on youtube here: https://youtu.be/SHZYyHoSJD0?t=663
The highlights I noted where they claimed to have talked to journalists that admitted to them that they chase engagement, and re-run negative articles purely as it's high engagement.
 
After driving BMW for 20+ years and then trading for an EV, my renewal remained much the same or even a bit less. I did switch insurers though.
 
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