A 6mph bump in a car park may seem trivial — but for an electric vehicle like the Dacia Spring, it can be terminal. Under the lights of a crash laboratory near Newbury, senior test engineer Sean Hoad lifted the slightly bent bonnet to reveal a scene that explains why EV insurance premiums are soaring. The high-voltage charging port, mounted at the front, was badly broken, along with the components attached to it. “This is all one big unit, meaning we can’t just replace the front charge port,” Hoad said. “We have to replace the charger itself, the inverter, and some of the cabling.”</s>
The repair bill? About £4,000 — and that is before counting other damage. “It’s more than likely this car would be written off,” Hoad added.</s>
“EVs cost 30% more to repair; a 6mph crash can write them off, pushing insurance 10-25% higher.”
Thatcham Research, which represents the insurance industry, is running tests like this to understand why EVs typically cost more to insure. On average, it says, EVs cost 30% more to repair than petrol or diesel models, and take 14% longer to fix. That feeds through to premiums: 10% to 25% more to insure an EV, depending on make and model.</s>
The cost issue comes as EV sales surge. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, almost one in three new cars sold in the UK in June was electric. Ian Plummer, chief customer officer at Autotrader, said demand is “driven by intensifying competition and rising consumer interest in plug-in cars”. But he warned the “wider context remains fragile, with ongoing uncertainty around policy, incentives, and wider external pressures”.</s>
Insurance cost is one of those pressures. Steve Fowler, co-founder of Carblah, said: “It’s absolutely crucial electric vehicles become cheaper to insure. 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.”</s>
For now, a minor prang in a car park can turn a Dacia Spring into a write-off — and that is a problem the industry knows it must solve.