Shocking cost of electric car insurance

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Amity Island

Amity Island

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Driving an electric car should be a win-win, saving money and the planet. So David was shocked when the insurance on his Tesla Model Y came up for renewal, and Aviva refused to cover him again, while several other brands turned him away.

When David did secure a new deal, the annual cost rocketed from £1,200 to more than £5,000.

www.theguardian.com

‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs

Drivers who ditched petrol and diesel to help save the planet face huge price rises in premiums
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Is this because even a minor shunt can damage the battery, so that it likely has to be replaced, I wonder? That won't come cheap. Write-off values must give insurance companies nightmares, too.
 
Martin.A said:
Is this because even a minor shunt can damage the battery, so that it likely has to be replaced, I wonder? That won't come cheap. Write-off values must give insurance companies nightmares, too.
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There has been a number of electric car, electric bike fires. Fire officers have said the fires from these unstable batteries are very difficult to put out, plus the lithium is highly toxic too.

At this rate, plus 20mph speed limits we will be going back to horse and cart.
 
Amity Island said:
Driving an electric car should be a win-win, saving money and the planet. So David was shocked when the insurance on his Tesla Model Y came up for renewal, and Aviva refused to cover him again, while several other brands turned him away.

When David did secure a new deal, the annual cost rocketed from £1,200 to more than £5,000.

www.theguardian.com

‘The quotes were £5,000 or more’: electric vehicle owners face soaring insurance costs

Drivers who ditched petrol and diesel to help save the planet face huge price rises in premiums
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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Here's a link to an article I read only this morning.

Glad mine's a diesel!
 
Jotheboat said:
Here's a link to an article I read only this morning.

Glad mine's a diesel!
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Plus, electric cars are not even priced competitively. Electrics will probably be twice the price of a diesel or petrol..

I wouldn't like to be left in the situation where most of us eventually convert to electric, petrol stations are decommissioned, petrol industry closes down and then there is a shortage of electric (lithium) batteries. Then where will we all be? Probably stuck in 15min cities.
 
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Amity Island said:
Probably stuck in 15min cities.
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Sounds great! Everything I need within 15 minutes? And no need to drive anywhere (but the ability to do so if I wish)? Yes please.

To be honest one of the things I really like best about our current location is exactly that.

I can walk 30 mins in one direction and be in the countryside, and 30 minutes in another direction and be in the city centre shopping district. It’s one of the quirks of the way the city grew around the river and historic harbour. Plus we have a thriving local independent economy with shops, delis, cafes, bars and restaurants on multiple streets.

Sometimes I hardly move the car in a fortnight.
 
Don't believe all you read in the papers. I said i would never switch but we have:
* our insurance premium fell significantly (5 year old slow petrol Suzuki to brand new MG4 with stunning performance)
* we can travel 240 miles with out recharge
* cost of a round trip to mother in laws is at least £80 cheaper
* a colleague has just traded in a bog standard MG4 for the new X-Power anticipating (and willing to accept) a big insurance premium hike............annual premium increased £60.

PS I also said I would never drive an automatic - now won't go back to manual
 
Bit of trivia.....

I recently read that Ferdinand Porsche, believing electric was the future, made an electric car in 1898, so way ahead of his time in that respect. Lead-Acid batteries back then, of course. Performance was brisk but the range was short, which sounds slightly familiar 120 years on?
 
Amity Island said:
Only if you live in a city. Many don't want to spend their entire life living in a city.
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Or a town. Somewhere with fairly dense housing (mixed with other categories of usage), sure. But not that unlike the village I grew up in (though the shops were pretty minimal), and rather like the town I live in now, which is in Greater London but could be anywhere else (apart from the public transport). I can understand why not everyone wants to live in such a place, but I can't understand why the idea of policies encouraging mixed usage planning is viewed with such horror.
 
Martin.A said:
Bit of trivia.....

I recently read that Ferdinand Porsche, believing electric was the future, made an electric car in 1898, so way ahead of his time in that respect. Lead-Acid batteries back then, of course. Performance was brisk but the range was short, which sounds slightly familiar 120 years on?
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Somebody called Royce said much the same back in the 1920s. On the TV this morning a feature on 'Salon Privee' at Blenheim Palace on a converted car of his.

Back on subject, I can't wait to get an EV, probably the cheap new Chinese made Volvo launching next year.
 
Just as a slight distraction to the insurance issue, anyone considering an EV needs to be aware that the infrastructure for completing any work on your vehicle is not particularly well established yet.

Most dealers (you know, those folks that tend to charge double for everything) are geared up for working on EVs but Frank Bobbins at the end of the road, who is a perfectly good mechanic and MOT centre, will not have had the training or the equipment in place to work on your car with the HUGE super duper powerful batteries.

I learnt this the hard way with my EV when I wanted a tow bar fitted. Personally I can’t wait to ditch my EV lease car next year and go back to dirty diesel :rofl:
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Or a town. Somewhere with fairly dense housing (mixed with other categories of usage), sure. But not that unlike the village I grew up in (though the shops were pretty minimal), and rather like the town I live in now, which is in Greater London but could be anywhere else (apart from the public transport). I can understand why not everyone wants to live in such a place, but I can't understand why the idea of policies encouraging mixed usage planning is viewed with such horror.
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The planning policies are geared towards driving more and more of the population into cities -- see number of high rise blocks going up over past 10 years -- then bringing in further strategies to keep people constrained to them. Nothing wrong with having mixed use development and trying to provide everything within walking distance, but there is way more to it than just providing everything one needs. Put this into the wider context of things like "don't cook" just eat, "don't shop" just get it delivered, "don't go out" stay at home and stream movies or play video games, "don't see your G.P just call him, don't go to hospital ring 111, don't go to work work from home, don't go to school remote learn at home etc.

In a nutshell, we will all just be sat at home in front of screens all day in the near future. There won't even be a 15min city as there will be nothing and no reason to leave your home. There may come a time when there won't even be a McDonalds on every corner as they change from a restaurant to a home delivery only business model without the restaurants.
 
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@Amity Island That's pretty much how the human race is depicted in Disney's 2008 movie WALL-E
 
My EV is an 8MPH mobility scooter.
I go to morris practice, do the shopping, visit the clinic - all the local traveling. The cost to charge it is pennies.
Electric cars seem to be huge heavy things.
I can travel door to door on 'the chariot' and might in future give up the idea of a car completely.
 
I too have an 8mph mobility scooter - it is fully registered with road tax and is fully insured for road. This is with Motability, who pay for the lease with my PIP mobility, so all I pay for is the charge, which as @Drummer says, is cheap. I use it to occasionally go down into the village to to go to shops where I know I can get around with two crutches. Although it has a thirty mile range when fully charged, I can't use it to get around supermarkets.

The reason why it's cheap to charge if that it uses sealed lead acid batteries, which can easily cope with the their own weight but also the weight of the vehicle, and I leave it on trickle charge when I'm not using it.

For other adventures I use an electric wheelchair which can be pulled apart into three four pieces that will fit into most cars boots. That's what I use for the torture of watching Blackburn Rovers with my brother, and the very occasional visit to a shop with my wife (who is also disabled, and can't drive) using a taxi.
 
mikeyB said:
I too have an 8mph mobility scooter - it is fully registered with road tax and is fully insured for road. This is with Motability, who pay for the lease with my PIP mobility, so all I pay for is the charge, which as @Drummer says, is cheap. I use it to occasionally go down into the village to to go to shops where I know I can get around with two crutches. Although it has a thirty mile range when fully charged, I can't use it to get around supermarkets.

The reason why it's cheap to charge if that it uses sealed lead acid batteries, which can easily cope with the their own weight but also the weight of the vehicle, and I leave it on trickle charge when I'm not using it.

For other adventures I use an electric wheelchair which can be pulled apart into three four pieces that will fit into most cars boots. That's what I use for the torture of watching Blackburn Rovers with my brother, and the very occasional visit to a shop with my wife (who is also disabled, and can't drive) using a taxi.
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I can travel on by ways to the places I go - through parks and the chines to reach the beach, and I stay off the roads as much as possible as the standard of driving around here is pretty dire.
On Wednesday last week I had a foot check at the clinic and decided to go across the big roundabout to visit Lidl. I got 3/4 the way across using the double pelican crossing when a car came hurtling around the roundabout and I realised it was not going to stop in time. The tight turning circle of the chariot saved me or I'd have been under the car. I swung it around to the right and it got me back into the first lane, but it was a close thing. The dial goes up to 11.
 
Never been interested in EV, like my diesel cars as do fair few miles over a year & so won't be changing anytime soon.
 
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