Why electric car insurance is increasing: Battery damage causes high costs and total losses

Why electric car insurance is increasing: Battery damage causes high costs and total losses

According to a report by www.auto-motor-und-sport.de,
Electric cars are expensive to purchase because their large batteries make up a significant part of the overall vehicle cost and are often worth more than 10,000 euros. These batteries play a key role in determining the cost-effectiveness of electric cars, as damage can result in high repair costs or total economic loss. Against this background, insurance premiums for electric cars are rising. While some vehicle manufacturers emphasize the repairability of their batteries, others like Tesla have “zero repairability” of their structural battery pack. Due to their size, battery boxes in electric cars are increasingly being designed as supporting structures in the body, making repair and recycling more difficult. Even after minor accidents and low mileage, more and more electric vehicles are being written off early. This leads to rising insurance costs for electric cars, which are on average 27 percent higher in the USA than for conventional vehicles. Even in Germany, electric cars are by no means cheaper to insure than combustion engine models. The European Battery Regulation specifically calls on the EU Commission to make it easier to maintain, repair and reuse electric car traction batteries. In view of the rising insurance costs and the difficulties in repairing and recycling batteries, it will soon hardly be possible to insure electric cars more cheaply than comparable combustion engine models.