I doubt this is common. The UK press seems to universally be on a hate the EV push over the past year and its often made up garbage. I don't know what the presses issue is with EVs but they sure are making up a lot of problems that owners don't actually have of late.<p>If this was happening to all EV owners we would be seeing them all complaining about it, yet this is an article about one person not a poll showing this is happening widely.
> “I spent weeks on every comparison site as well as trying individual insurers and specialist brokers, but either they wouldn’t cover the car or the quotes were £5,000 or more,” says David, whose only change in circumstance was three points on a licence.<p>David probably got those 3 points from speeding. If you’re going to speed in a £60k supercar-for-dads please don’t also complain about your premium going up.
" whose only change in circumstance was three points on a licence."<p>LOL, so it seems much more likely the new speeding ticket or whatever had more effect than the Tesla on the price rise.<p>Still maybe something to discuss (getting punished for speeding itself, then by the insurance rise), but a different issue.
Insurance is a profit driven business. If EV premiums have risen then the actuaries have made an assessment to risk of loss of profits even under re-insurance.<p>When brand specific theft surges, theft insurance for those brands rise.<p>I hate the effect this will have on EV uptake but I caution against assuming there is no factual basis to why insurers are moving. It's like futures markets and one of the reasons why they were invented: to manage farmers future risks, not just to benefit derivatives investors. If premiums are rising, future and current owners need to know why, and EV manufacturers need to be responsive.
I'm not surprised. How many stories have we seen where a seemingly minor accident caused a Rivian to be totaled? Or Teslas waiting for weeks or months to get the parts needed for a repair? I've been thinking to myself what's going to happen to the insurance rates for these vehicles?<p>Take Tesla's gigacasting, for example. Great to bring down manufacturing costs, horrible for repair costs. Insurance covers repairs, not production. If your gigacast vehicle gets in an accident, you're likely to get screwed. It's very hard to do bodywork on those vehicles and there's few people with the experience to do it. That's expensive - and that's what you're asking your insurance provider to cover.<p>Add to it the sensors and cameras and everything else they're adding to these vehicles and they're becoming a nightmare to repair. It kind of pisses me off, in a way. EV's are supposed to be <i>simpler</i>, but what we've done is to actually make them more <i>complex</i>, at least from a repair perspective. All I really wanted was a simple car, such as a Honda Civic, that has an electric drivetrain. Simple. Not a bunch of electronics to go awry, I could take to any bodyshop and have repaired, and I could realistically expect to get 400,000 miles. </rant>
> Analysts say claims costs are 25% higher for electric cars, and that they also take about 14% longer to repair than a diesel or petrol equivalent.<p>That seems odd. One of the main things about having an electric vehicle was supposed to be theirs reliably and simplicity compared to the complexity of an internal combustion engine.<p>At the same time insurance actuaries figured something out that is counterintuitive to the general expectations around EVs. Do people in EVs drive more dangerously? I can see the repairs being more expensive due to needing specialized skills, but it would seem higher reliability should have offset that, but perhaps it didn’t.
My electric vehicle insurance is free; it's included with my renters' insurance.<p><a href="https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/hybrid-bikes/electric-hybrid-bikes/verve/verve-2-lowstep/p/28300/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/hybrid-bikes/electr...</a>
I drive two cars, both over 20 years old. The cars still have value (unlike an ev when the battery pack gets to end of life) and are maintained by me (unlike an ev). My insurance is approx £60 per month total.
Walled gardens don't just keep enemies out, they keep customers in – and make <i>excellent</i> targets of opportunity for adjacent/supporting industries like lawyers, insurance, PE, and consolidation.
> whose only change in circumstance was three points on a licence<p>I had this happen to me about 15 years ago, if by "happen to me" you mean "I committed a criminal offence while in control of a motor vehicle". My insurance went up by about 25% for the following 5 years, which was annoying, but I'm not sure how much attention we should pay to the opinions of a convicted criminal when it comes to the punishment for their crime. It's heartening to hear that we are clamping down on these vermin.<p>> "...because who has got that kind of money [£4,500] in one go?"<p>The Tesla Model Y has an RRP of £~45,000, so its owner is probably better placed to answer this question than we are.
Just out of curiosity, in the UK can you get a minimal form of coverage that covers injury/damage to other parties, but not repair of your own vehicle?