mistermack Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 In the last couple of weeks, I've seen reports on the news of spiralling insurance prices, for cover on electric cars. And the figures they were giving were formidable. People were complaining of their insurance renewal quotes for their electric vehicles being four and five times the previous price, some even more. The reports were giving the rationale that insurance companies were giving was the much higher repair costs involved in claims on electric vehicles, not a higher incidence of claims. Maybe the industry isn't ready for major repairs on electrics? If that's the case, the insurance price explosion could be a blip, or maybe it's going to be a permanent cost, of owning electric cars. The sums involved are so big that it's likely to mean that the cost of insuring an older electric vehicle is going to dwarf the buying price. Does anybody have any experience of rapid rises in insurance for EVs ? ‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs | Car insurance | The Guardian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVat Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Must be related to the collision impact, and the relative effects. An IC engine block and drive train are fairly durable in an impact. I don't about batteries and other EV components. Maybe there's a lot of expensive fly-by-wire stuff that's delicate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StringJunky Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Batteries are dear... £5000+. More gadgets and repair costs. Probably, there isn't the user base yet to bring the costs down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 This appears to be a local, not global, phenomenon. This article suggests EV insurance prices are trending lower in the US From the OP link: “for petrol and diesel car drivers, the increase is 29%” So part of the increase is a general trend, not because they are EVs. How much of this is because of BREXIT driving up the cost of parts? The point about the lack of data is important, too. Relatively few EVs means a low number of accidents from which to gather reliable statistics. Is any of this opportunistic price gouging? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 (edited) It’s not an EV specific phenomenon, but a cross industry upward trend in insurance rates across regions (tied to inflation and supply limitations). Focusing on EVs specifically is more BS propaganda. This example from the US is similar to what’s being encountered across many parts of the world also struggling with inflationary pressure and supply chain friction) Edited October 9, 2023 by iNow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiot Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 13 hours ago, mistermack said: In the last couple of weeks, I've seen reports on the news of spiralling insurance prices, for cover on electric cars. And the figures they were giving were formidable. People were complaining of their insurance renewal quotes for their electric vehicles being four and five times the previous price, some even more. The reports were giving the rationale that insurance companies were giving was the much higher repair costs involved in claims on electric vehicles, not a higher incidence of claims. Maybe the industry isn't ready for major repairs on electrics? If that's the case, the insurance price explosion could be a blip, or maybe it's going to be a permanent cost, of owning electric cars. The sums involved are so big that it's likely to mean that the cost of insuring an older electric vehicle is going to dwarf the buying price. Does anybody have any experience of rapid rises in insurance for EVs ? One factor not yet considered here is the age of the car. Electric cars have only really started selling in volume about 2 years ago. Before that it was only specialist and nich market stuff. In order to grow their market volume ev manufactures have been offerening discount insurance to buyers of their new vehicles. A couple of years on and those owners now looking around for a better deal may well have a shock. As a matter of interest Kia include a 5 year repair deal so the sot of parts may not be such as factor, They also claim that their own insurance prices for IC and EV vehicles are very similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swansont Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 2 hours ago, iNow said: It’s not an EV specific phenomenon 29% increase for ICE, 72% for EV means that some aspect of it is EV-specific, in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted October 9, 2023 Share Posted October 9, 2023 Thank you for the correction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endy0816 Posted October 10, 2023 Share Posted October 10, 2023 11 hours ago, swansont said: This appears to be a local, not global, phenomenon. This article suggests EV insurance prices are trending lower in the US From the OP link: “for petrol and diesel car drivers, the increase is 29%” So part of the increase is a general trend, not because they are EVs. How much of this is because of BREXIT driving up the cost of parts? The point about the lack of data is important, too. Relatively few EVs means a low number of accidents from which to gather reliable statistics. Is any of this opportunistic price gouging? Yes, I've been reading that Rules of Origin related tariffs for EV's are supposed to kick in after this year. Could be related. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-reticent-postpone-brexit-tariffs-evs-says-uk-auto-body Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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