Lower Insurance for EV Drivers? | Hybrid Cars

Published May 25, 2012

By Huw Evans

Although they cost more to buy or lease than internal combustion engine equivalents, electric vehicles not only save in operation costs, it appears insurance premiums can be less as well.

According to Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director of Kelley Blue Book?s KBB.com, EV owners are considered to be a careful bunch, more mature.

?They?re not the twenty something male who gets into the most fights and has the most car accidents.?

However, given that EVs still represent a tiny fraction of the overall passenger car market, it can be hard to gauge exactly what sort of premiums should be charged for operating one.

Nonetheless, as electric vehicles proliferate, so do insurance policies designed to cover them, leading to a growing level of competition. Hartford Insurance is seizing an opportunity to win over EV buyers, by providing a five percent discount nationwide.

As for the reason, Hartford is saying this because driving an EV shows support for sustainability, although the greater degree of cautiousness among electric vehicle motorists seems to be an underlying theme.

One Chevy Volt owner in correspondence with others said, ?we [all] seem to be less hurried about driving.?

According to Edmunds.com, the estimated average annual premium for a Volt in the first five years of ownership is approximately $1,452, compared to a car such as the Cadillac CTS, with costs around $2,024 per year. It?s a similar saving scenario for the Nissan Leaf, which costs around $1,500 to insure annually; by comparison, a mid-size Maxima sedan is over $1,800.

Yet there is a flipside to this. Due to the level of technology employed in cars such as EVs and plug-in hybrids, some insurance companies are charging higher premiums than regular vehicles, based on the projected costs of repairs.

A spokesperson for insurance company Progressive; Brittany Senary, said ?because newer vehicles with more expensive technology and parts [such as EVs] generally cost more to fix, they?re generally more expensive to insure. We [Progressive] don?t offer discounts because we cannot justify them based on our claims data.?

Clearly it pays to shop around.

USA Today

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