Soaring EV insurance cost... if you can get it

Soaring EV insurance cost... if you can get it

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Discussion

HocusPocus

Original Poster:

1,463 posts

115 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
Wow, Grauniad reports £5k to insure an EV with several insurers not even offering coverage. The insurance market is destroying the economic argument for now on private EV ownership. That single EV costs more to insure than my private fleet of 8 ICU cars. Insurance reflects the real world cost of repair. No wonder EV cars are plummeting in value.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/30/the-...

Any PHers having trouble with EV insurance?

Gad-Westy

15,658 posts

227 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
Don't know if much has changed since we insured our E-Up (cheaper end of the EV market admittedly) but we paid £190 per year in Dec 22.

paradigital

1,033 posts

166 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
My renewal for my Model 3 Performance was up slightly on last year but still in the £500s.

If it quadruples (or worse) next year then I’ll be very surprised.

Jamescrs

5,257 posts

79 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
Gad-Westy said:
Don't know if much has changed since we insured our E-Up (cheaper end of the EV market admittedly) but we paid £190 per year in Dec 22.
You may get a shock when you come to renew in December, the whole insurance market has gone nuts in 2023 and it seems electric cars are particularly badly affected. I read an article on one of the news websites of an owner of a Smart car EV complaining his premiums had shot up by 100's of percent.

As an aside i'm getting hammered for insuring a BMW M4 and many Range Rover owners are getting letters come renewal time to inform them their current insurer no longer wants their business. The whole insurance market is a mess.

51mes

1,519 posts

214 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
I wonder if this is a side effect of the continued build cost reduction techniques being used by Tesla, as said above the more traditional construction Polestar is not as affected,

The whole back structure of the car is now a single piece casting on the new Model Y. with the new GigaPress. They are supposed to be doing the same to the front of the car. If something were to damage that component - thats the car gone as it will be uneconomical to repair. There was also talk of integrating the battery structure into the chassis - easier to build - harder to repair.

See: https://insideevs.com/news/686793/tesla-reportedly...

There is also a potential risk impact of removing the parking sensors and relying on Tesla Vision - based on a recent video by RV Symonds...
https://youtu.be/kfsRFTpaTwA?si=Sb944OlxVrfOINiV

Of course with Tesla starting their own insurance firm - do you think their prices will be more competitive ???
https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/insuremytesla


S.

Jag_NE

3,198 posts

114 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
The repair and associated costs will definitely be a major factor but i wonder how many people are driving round like maniacs and wrapping EV cars up in big numbers.

Things like the model Y long range are very rapid compared to 2.0d stuff used in recent years. Full instant torque makes traffic lights very tempting for a race and with the cost to charge so small, you can drive like a tt at all times without any consideration for fuel economy.

paradigital

1,033 posts

166 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
51mes said:
Of course with Tesla starting their own insurance firm - do you think their prices will be more competitive ???
https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/insuremytesla


S.
InsureMyTesla is just Direct Line.

51mes

1,519 posts

214 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
paradigital said:
InsureMyTesla is just Direct Line.
It is you're right, thast what it is today - apologies. This is what is coming however (and what I meantt to link to) - the car is the black box: https://www.tesla.com/support/insurance

bloomen

8,400 posts

173 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
51mes said:
The whole back structure of the car is now a single piece casting on the new Model Y. with the new GigaPress. They are supposed to be doing the same to the front of the car. If something were to damage that component - thats the car gone as it will be uneconomical to repair. There was also talk of integrating the battery structure into the chassis - easier to build - harder to repair.
Wow. That's not going to be the type of thing your old goat under the arches would knock back into shape.

Consdering how much less repairable any modern car is compared to a couple of generations ago - ornate headlamps needing unique coding and ECUs in the bumper - I'm surprised it's taken this long to explode.

And that's before we get to the joke security arrangements many modern cars have.

Maybe manufacturers should be forced to provide insurance themselves. They may start showing some sense after that.


turbobloke

111,516 posts

274 months

bobtail4x4

3,992 posts

123 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
I just did a quote on money supermarket
thinking of buying my current lease Mii ev

getting quotes of around £300

Ninja59

3,691 posts

126 months

Sunday 1st October 2023
quotequote all
turbobloke said:
In fairness the underwriter is Covea. I know the article linked by the OP said that covea said no comment.

They have been hugely exposed by RR theft and I am not surprised they are being risk averse. I heard that one insurer was paying £600k a month in RR losses.

Sadly the market is competition is shrinking already.

More than have pulled motor insurance, equally others are pulling product lines or becoming risk averse. Then you have the merger of markerstudy (lancaster/zenith etc) and Atlanta group (Swinton, marmalade and Carole nash).

PetrolHeadInRecovery

263 posts

29 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
Checked the Swiss insurance quotes for our car, and they seemed to be on the last year's level or maybe a bit below.

Makes me think that, at least here, people are not losing control of their powerful EVs more frequently than their fossil fuel counterparts.

Crudeoink

1,057 posts

73 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
bobtail4x4 said:
I just did a quote on money supermarket
thinking of buying my current lease Mii ev

getting quotes of around £300
On one of the other threads, the OP was saying every time he tried to actually purchase to policy on one of the comparison websites it wouldnt let him, he'd tried over 30 diffrent insurers via the comparison sites and the same issue every time

sjg

7,589 posts

279 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
£650 on confused.com for our current Leaf e+. 40s, married, plenty of NCB, greater London postcode.

£1059 for a Model Y RWD, £1161 for LR. Which doesn't seem bad for the increase in value and performance.

Insurers weight risk factors differently and I suspect some people/cars just aren't desirable to them hence the silly quotes or no offers.

Was looking at our work salary sacrifice scheme, you can get insurance bundled in with that at a fixed cost for the contract which could be a very good deal for some if things keep getting silly.

rodericb

7,879 posts

140 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
51mes said:
I wonder if this is a side effect of the continued build cost reduction techniques being used by Tesla, as said above the more traditional construction Polestar is not as affected,

The whole back structure of the car is now a single piece casting on the new Model Y. with the new GigaPress. They are supposed to be doing the same to the front of the car. If something were to damage that component - thats the car gone as it will be uneconomical to repair. There was also talk of integrating the battery structure into the chassis - easier to build - harder to repair.

See: https://insideevs.com/news/686793/tesla-reportedly...

There is also a potential risk impact of removing the parking sensors and relying on Tesla Vision - based on a recent video by RV Symonds...
https://youtu.be/kfsRFTpaTwA?si=Sb944OlxVrfOINiV

Of course with Tesla starting their own insurance firm - do you think their prices will be more competitive ???
https://www.tesla.com/en_gb/support/insuremytesla


S.
How many modern cars are being repaired to the extent that they're unpicking welded structural elements of the chassis and replacing them?

If Tesla are able to simplify the manufacturing process significantly enough then it could end up that the chassis is of lower importance in the schemes of things in repurposing componentry and recycling the unservicable bits. Or in other words it might become feasible to replace a chassis. I was thinking that the integrated battery contradicted that thinking but the battery pack is another assembly which would be extracted and broken down (or recycled) due to risk of internal damage.

Mark-ri571

672 posts

121 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
I renewed our Mini SE level 2 in July at £246. Previous year was £171. To be fair the previous year was ridiculously cheap . I stayed with the same insurer (Flow) as others were more expensive.

HocusPocus

Original Poster:

1,463 posts

115 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
CheesecakeRunner said:
HocusPocus said:
Insurance reflects the real world cost of repair.
Not sure that’s wholly true. It also reflects inflated hire car prices, personal injury claims, uninsured drivers, parts shortages, and all sorts of other things.
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/07/05/electric-vehicle-repair-costs-revealed-versus-ice-equivalent

Thatcham research with BEV claims data from insurers makes sobering reading. Cost and risk all comes back to setting premium prices for road users. Never imagined a lot holding 100 damaged ICU cars can only take 2 damaged BEVs under government 15m safety cordon rule.

Alfa numeric

3,119 posts

193 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
I've just got a couple of quotes for a BMW i4 40 and a 330e touring- the cheapest quote for the i4 was £1,070, the 330e £770. By way of comparison it cost us £380 to insure our 2020 Passat GTE in September.

ChocolateFrog

31,589 posts

187 months

Monday 2nd October 2023
quotequote all
HocusPocus said:
CheesecakeRunner said:
HocusPocus said:
Insurance reflects the real world cost of repair.
Not sure that’s wholly true. It also reflects inflated hire car prices, personal injury claims, uninsured drivers, parts shortages, and all sorts of other things.
https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2023/07/05/electric-vehicle-repair-costs-revealed-versus-ice-equivalent

Thatcham research with BEV claims data from insurers makes sobering reading. Cost and risk all comes back to setting premium prices for road users. Never imagined a lot holding 100 damaged ICU cars can only take 2 damaged BEVs under government 15m safety cordon rule.
I thought it was a typo when you did it the first time but there it is again.

It's ICE not ICU.