There has been speculation that electric car insurance can cost a little more than your conventional vehicle insurance at the moment, but with the government wanting to invest a lot in these relatively new vehicles, there is a key incentive to knock down these prices so that they’re likely cheaper. So, is electric vehicle insurance getting cheaper?
Even though as of the late, they have had a slightly inflated insurance cost, they come with the benefits of being much cheaper to run, grants, cheaper VED road tax, congestion charge exemptions and BIK rates. This price increase has been a result of historic data on accidents, cost of repairs and other important information not being available due to its newness. Being precautious in preventing hefty pay-outs of their end, they accounted the possible expenses and adjusted the insurance prices in accordance to it.
Because electric vehicles are becoming increasingly more common and heavily promoted, insurers have made more accommodation for them. They found that electric cars are typically less likely to get stolen and more likely to be recovered when they are since their restricted range and charging times make them unideal for get-away cars and such.
There were issues on behalf of specialised parts that are much rarer to come by than your regular vehicles but these problems are getting erased through the increasing popularity with EV’s, thus providing more spares and improving the supply chain. There is also the added benefit that electric vehicles have less parts in comparison to your petrol and diesel vehicles, meaning its easier to find any trouble and sort it. Not to mention that the dynamics of a vehicle that requires fewer complex moving parts is less likely to get damaged in comparison to your gas guzzlers.
With Mechanics needing specialised training in electric vehicle repairs, finding a specialist was somewhat hard to come across a few years ago. Now you can find a good amount have gained expertise in the field – especially with your more commercial mechanics such as kwikfit.
When it comes to accidents, electric vehicles have been strategically designed so that there is minimal damage to the battery in the instance of a crash. With the battery packs being the single most expensive part of the car, it’s top of the protection priority list (after yourself and your passengers, of course) to prevent you from paying out a hefty amount for a replacement.
Unfortunately, despite these great findings, comparison expert GoCompare has warned buyers than they can still expect to pay a premium, but the pay gap is shrinking. Essentially most, if not all the issues to do with insurance prices stem from how popular electric cars and vans are. With such laws being in place for cities such as London and Birmingham having a stance for EV only and emission restriction policies, there is no doubt that insurance rates will be reduced significantly in the future.
There is a very even insurance rate between hybrid, petrol and diesel vehicles luckily. But with any electric vehicle, it is important to review what you’re covered on to ensure that you haven’t overlooked any extra equipment that comes with the car, such as chargers.
So ultimately, electric vehicles are at a slight disadvantage currently, but with the current benefits and the future plans for vehicles with a combustion engines. Your standard gas car or van will heavily suffer with tax increases, emission chargers, fuel cost and a likely insurance rate inflation. Ultimately, switching to a green vehicle now will save you money in other areas and the insurance cost will come down.
Want to know how to lower your insurance costs and see which EV's are the cheapest to insure? Read our Blog Post about it >
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