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.”
