It is hot and bright beneath the high intensity lights in a cavernous crash and safety testing laboratory, hidden away in a business park outside Newbury. A siren blares and a disembodied voice counts down: “Three, two, one.” A small white car trundles into view, rolls across the floor, and bumps into a barrier set against the wall. At just 6mph, the Dacia Spring’s bonnet bends slightly. But the hidden damage is significant.
Senior test engineer Sean Hoad lifts the bonnet to reveal the high-voltage charging port, mounted at the front, badly broken along with the components it is attached to. “This is all one big unit, meaning we can’t just replace the front charge port. We have to replace the charger itself, the inverter, and some of the cabling,” he explains. Repairing all that would cost about £4,000 – and there is other damage besides. “It’s more than likely this car would be written off,” he adds.
“Electric cars cost 30% more to repair, pushing insurance premiums 10-25% higher than petrol models.”
Thatcham Research, which works on behalf of the insurance industry, is carrying out tests like this to understand why electric vehicles typically attract higher premiums. On average, it says, EVs cost 30% more to repair than petrol or diesel models, and take 14% longer to fix. That feeds into insurance prices: it can cost 10-25% more to insure an EV than a conventional car, depending on the make and model.
The issue comes as EV sales surge. According to the latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, they made up almost one in every three new cars sold in the UK in June. Ian Plummer, chief customer officer of Autotrader, says rising demand is “driven by intensifying competition and rising consumer interest in plug-in cars”. But he warns “the wider context remains fragile, with ongoing uncertainty around policy, incentives, and wider external pressures”.
Insurance cost is one of those niggling concerns that could put off would-be buyers. “It’s absolutely crucial electric vehicles become cheaper to insure,” insists Steve Fowler, co-founder of the car review website Carblah. “They are expensive – though not as expensive as some people might think – but by making them easier to repair and cheaper to insure, more people will buy them.”
For now, Thatcham’s tests show that even a minor prang can demand a £4,000 repair bill. Until manufacturers design for repairability, that hidden damage may keep insurance premiums high – and slow the electric revolution.