Internal combustion vehicle insurers have their statistics aligned. And so they should, because some 137 years have passed since Karl Benz patented the first gasoline auto in 1886. However, The London Telegraph reports UK insurers are still trying to get their minds around the cost of electric car battery repairs. Some are even contemplating refusing cover, it seems.
Are Repairs to Electric Car Batteries Becoming Un-Insurable?
It might just be possible to build a case for that trend emerging in some instances. Although CEO of Thatcham Research, Jonathan Hewett, believes this is more a result of confusion. There is a lack of insight, he says, into the cost of electric car battery repairs.
This confusion is pushing up insurance premiums, Hewett continues. Repairs to damaged batteries are expensive. “The challenge is we have no way of understanding whether the battery has been compromised or damaged in any way,” he explains. The London Telegraph has heard of electric cars being written off after minor bumps.
By now insurers understand that thermal runway can unravel into catastrophic fire, following damage to a car battery in a collision. “What we’re struggling to understand at the moment, Hewett expands, “is how we approach that diagnostic technique. It’s like a doctor trying to understand what’s wrong with you without any notes or an X-ray.”
Confusing Signals Muddy Waters for Electric Cars
An electric car battery may add more cost to a vehicle than a gasoline engine would. A series of fires aboard marine car transporters have led to suggestions electric vehicles should have more ‘quarantine space’ around them, during storage. Lithium battery fires in e-bikes could also be adding to signs of reticence among insurers.
UK parliamentarian Greg Smith may have had a point when he remarked, “We should be looking to other technologies, like synthetic fuels and hydrogen that will be more reliable and friendly to the planet.” We don’t believe electric transport has necessarily reached that stage. But it is increasingly obvious we need safer electric car batteries.
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