Insurance firms not ready for electric cars

The insurance industry is still adjusting to the presence of electric cars on the UK’s roads-that’s the conclusion from a TheGreenCarWebsite.co.uk investigation.

Some new electric car owners will find it difficult getting quotes to insure their new greener form of transport while others maybe shocked at the cost.

Is an electric car petrol or diesel driven?

Investigating how ready car insurance firms and their websites are for electric cars, the leading green car guide found that, as the first electric car models make their first UK deliveries, just two of the four biggest price comparison websites are able to quote for such cars.

Attempting to get quotes from the websites, the investigation revealed that two of the websites’ forms required a confirmation of whether the car was petrol or diesel and requested engine size in litres.

Ten of the biggest insurance companies and brokers in the UK were also approached both on the phone and through their own websites. Again, six of these companies could not quote for electric cars via their websites, of these; two didn’t list some of the biggest names in the electric car market (Nissan Leaf, Peugeot iOn and Mitsubishi i-MiEV), while the other four listed these car but required confirmation of whether they were diesel or petrol models.

When these six were approached via the phone, just two were able to quote over the phone to make amends for their websites (one of these kept us on hold for 20 minutes however, just asked about engine size before finally giving us a quote!), the others either required a vehicle registration or couldn’t deal with the request at all.
Price shock.

Using a driver profile of a 27 year old female, with a clean driving licence held for five years and with 3 years no-claims discount, those insurers able to quote for electric car were tested for their best price for comprehensive insurance with a £100 excess for models such as the Nissan Leaf, which makes its first UK deliveries this week.
Price varied wildly, from over £12,000 from the very worst price via a price comparison website to insure a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, while the worst quote for the Leaf came to £3,499. While electric car insurance is expected to come at a premium over comparable petrol models, such quotes are above and well beyond this.

Best price via our top ten insurance companies on the Leaf was £876.89 and for the Mitsubishi i-MiEV was £763.83. The Peugeot iOn’s best quote was £832.73. All three prices came from just one of the top ten-Admiral.
However the very best prices came from a small, specialist insurer-Pluginsure.co.uk which quoted £658 to insure the i-MiEV or iOn and £691.17 to insure the Leaf (although this did include a £250 excess).

“Our research has shown that the first electric car buyers may need to be patient and hunt around for the best deal rather than accept the first quote they get. It might be a bit frustrating at first, as some insurers are simply not ready to deal with your enquiry, but persevere as the difference in quotations can be simply shocking,” advises the website’s editor Faye Sunderland.

“Things will get better as electric cars become more prevalent on the road and premiums should start to come down. While electric cars may be likely to cost more to insure than an equivalent petrol model, the difference shouldn’t be eye-watering,” she adds.