Electric Car Insurance – What you need to know

With sales of electric cars continuing to rise, we take a look at the problems of getting the right electric car insurance for your new EV.

For as long as anyone can remember, insuring your car has been a fairly straightforward – if often expensive – process, simply contacting your favourite insurance broker to do all the work, or trawling through comparison sites to do the work yourself, to get the best deal.

Whatever your car, from a small city car to a Ferrari, it was easy to understand insurance groups and compare costs and, unless you were considered ‘High Risk’, the vast majority of insurers would be happy to take you on.

But with the rise of electric cars – with more than 500,000 now on the roads in the UK – things have got a bit more complicated – and more expensive.

Why is electric car insurance more expensive?

We get endless emails asking why electric car insurance is more expensive, and although there’s not a simple answer there are a number of factors at play.

We all know EVs are more expensive than equivalent ICE cars, so replacing your EV will cost more if it’s written-off, a part of the additional costs for insurers.

But repairing damaged EVs is also a bit of a minefield.

Insurance companies tend to have agreements with networks of authorised repairers, and with their financial clout they can offer to send millions of pounds of business a year in return for a cut-price deal, helping their bottom line and reducing your premium.

But repairing electric cars is still a specialised business, and the number of independent authorised repairers – usually HEVRA accredited – is low, so insurance companies have to use OEM repairers. But OEMs know this and aren’t going to be doing cut-price deals anytime soon. So, bigger premiums for you thanks to higher costs.

Things will change, to a degree, as more and more electric cars hit the road, but what do you do for now, especially if you’re struggling to get cover at a sensible price?

As we have said before, we’d recommend using a specialist car insurance broker who knows the market and has access to insurers you’ll never find on a comparison site.

Not only will they do the work for you, but they’ll often also be able to build in extras like quick-charge rescue if you run out charge, and they will only deal with insurance companies keen to offer affordable cover to EV owners. Which many mainstream insurers don’t.

Not only will that keep the cost of electric car insurance in check, but it will also give you a more extensive and useful range of cover.

Thanks to Coops Insurance, a long-established professional Insurance Broker for over 30 years, for providing help with the advice in this article. Go to www.coops.co.uk for more information. Coops Insurance is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.