They’ve all got together and can fleece you as it’s something you have to have to on the road legally, another word for it is extortion.

The insurance companies are having to pay out for the results of fires caused by lithium batteries or that are made worse by lithium batteries. Recent news is the the London Fire Brigade is attending a battery fire close to every two days. Then there are a number of ships that have been destroyed by fire involving lithium batteries. Then there was the fire at Luton Airport that may not have been started by a battery fire but lithium certainly contributed to its ferocity. It doesn’t matter whether you are pro or con EVs the number of fires involving lithium has gone from nearly nothing to a lot. We need a new battery technology that does not have this risk of thermal runaway in what is effectively a monofuel. You cannot cut off the oxygen because it produces its own, you cannot cut off the fuel because that is what it is made of and it is hard to reduce the heat fast enough to extinguish it. If it releases gasses then the gas cloud can ignite explosively. The smoke and debris from the fires is toxic. Who thought this was a safe product to give to the public? I can’t imagine getting a product like this through the health and safety system where I worked without major controls in place to mitigate all these hazards.

Martin C

Just shop around more thoroughly, and don’t rely on one comparison site only. Consider increasing your voluntary excess if your’re not accident prone. It takes time but can work.

After being with Direct Line* quite happily for many years, they suddenly doubled my premium this February for no apparent reason. After much searching, I found a compatible policy, for less than I had been paying DL last year! (RAC insurance*)

Mike

*other insurers are available, I have no connection other than as a customer.

My insurance last year doubled with a company “that does not appear on any price comparison website”. I decided to go to another company who have an office in our town and who we have our House insurance with. Exactly the same cover for less than I paid the previous year.

What a refreshing change it was to deal with someone face to face instead of over the telephone.

The problem with many of these insurance companies is that they are part of one larger company. Thus the price is going to be somewhere in the same ball park on the comparison websites.

It will be interesting to see if I get a quote from my old company when it comes to renewal time. They did the last time I moved from them. However I don’t think I shall be so keen to go back a second time.

Regards

Gray,

It seems hard to believe that on top of the usual average payout for crash/theft claimes, the addition of EV fires has caused such an increase in premiums.

Not just EV fires, the cost of administering EV claims in general apparently.

A big problem for repairs to EVs is apparently a lack of information from the vehicle manufacturers about what is or is not acceptable in the way of superficial damage to battery packs in an accident. The packs have a protective shield that is supposed to be the first line of defence to the cells. You would think that a small dent in this outer casing, when the battery otherwise checks out OK, would be OK to live with – the sheild would seem to have done what it was designed to do. But in the abscence of any information on what is or isn’t not acceptable in the way of minor damage to the outer casings, the insurance companies “play safe” and want to replace the entire battery pack. Given the cost of battery packs, this usually means that EVs are often written off from relatively minor accidents that would be cheaply repairable for an ICE equivalent vehicle. EVs are usually more expensive than an ICE equivalent, so the insurance companies are taking a big hit writing off a more expensive vehicle after a minor accident. These extra costs appear to be loaded into all premiums & not just restricted to EV premiums.

Insurance company business practices are opaque at best. They got called out by the ombudsman for offering substantial premium discounts to new customers at the expense of those who renewed policies. They were made to have to show on your renewal what you paid the previous year & the practice of enticing in new business with discounts at the expense of existing customers was supposed to have been stopped. But that doesn’t stop their pricing algorithems deciding that if you have not claimed for a couple of years you must statistically be due for a big claim, so they then price you out anyway.

After two years of static premiums, our renewal this time was up 50%. Doing the comparison sites bit got a new provider for about the same price as before. The high renewal was quoted by Flow Insurance – the online only administered branch of LV. The new policies at the same price as last yere were provided by ……. LV directly !

Nigel B.

On 12 March 2024 at 09:05 Martin Connelly Said:

The insurance companies are having to pay out for the results of fires caused by lithium batteries or that are made worse by lithium batteries. …

Martin C

Well, I suppose that might be a factor, but it’s not mentioned in this BBC report.   Does say ‘The market price of used cars also went up, which has led to a significant increase in the value of claims pay-outs year-on-year and has also impacted premium levels…’  In other words, premiums are up because many people are choosing to buy old bangers rather than new electric cars!   Old cars being a bit unreliable guv, and perhaps not driven with tender loving care, cause more claims, and then settlements are higher because second-hand values are up because large numbers of people want one.   The second-hand car market is more problematic than Lithium!

Simple root cause of higher premiums is high-inflation due to rising fuel prices, COVID, and – in the UK – the cost of leaving the EU.  A considerable sum, and the bill is picked up by us in various ways, mostly relatively small price increases spread across many different goods and services.   Not just insurance, many things are more expensive.

Not all bad new for everyone. If you have cash, this is a good time to buy a UK house.  As large numbers of people cannot afford them house prices are dropping.  At the moment, if someone must sell in a hurry, they have to accept a low offer.   The buyer saves tens of thousands or more, the seller loses out.

Insurance is a business, and premiums are decided by what large groups of people are doing and experiencing, globally.   Nothing personal: insurance companies stay profitable by taking more money than they pay out, so customers shouldn’t expect much in the way of charity or loyalty rewards.

A complicated business too: Insurance companies insure themselves by only taking on a careful balance of risks, which changes over time.  It might include not insuring particular groups such as teenager or pensioner motorists, or it could find them attractive. This is one reason premiums suddenly increase: the firm has decided it’s over exposed, or can do better by insuring some other group.

No insurance company specialises entirely in domestic car insurance: it’s one of a basket of other risks – maritime, air, commodity futures, buildings, health, income, life, rental, legal liability, and hundreds of other opportunities.  All interconnected; if global warming causes a full-throttle hurricane to run up a multi-billion insurance claim by blasting the entire eastern US seaboard, like as not grand-dad in Little-Snoring will be asked to pay more for his car.  Unless shops around and finds a different insurance company who hadn’t underwritten anything in the US and is keen to take his money away from a competitor.

Yes it’s a pain.

Dave

It’s only going to get worse

This piece was linked in a recent News story about personalisation of insurance prices [based upon what your car knows about you and your driving habits]:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/what-data-does-my-car-collect-about-me-and-where-does-it-go/

[based on investigation the other side of the pond … but coming this way soon, I suspect]

MichaelG.

One explanation given to me for the increase was that parts availability for older cars, like the cosmetic parts that get damaged in collisions rather than wearing parts, are in short supply and expensive, thanks to Covid. This can mean that an insurer may be faced with paying for a rental car for much longer while the garage waits for parts. Hence much higher costs, and writing off older cars with relatively minor damage. Keith may well be typical of us on this site, being older, and with older cars. It was also suggested to me that there may be a hidden Green agenda, in order to help get some of the older diesel cars just like Keith’s Mondeo off the road. Thus a minor accident would result in a write off of a repairable car, because it was a diesel. Make of that what you will.

Martin Lewis has said it before, and repeated it the other night (he was talking about savings in this particular section, but still relevant to everything, insurance, broadband, mobiles etc)

” Forget loyalty! It simply doesn’t apply anymore”

I ONLY stay a customer when it suits me.

As per another post earlier today I have just bought a new to me 4×4 to replace an older one. I had been hoping to keep them both on the road until I sell the older one. (Nissan Patrol Y60 for sale if anyone interested.)  I am with the RAC so called them for a quote on the new vehicle.  “Oh” she said “you can only have no claims on one vehicle” but said I “I can only drive one at a time”.   “that still applies” she said.

OK say I ” what is it going to cost for the new one” ( after looking on gocompare and getting price of £465 fully comp and declaring no no claims bonus).   Well she said ” you are looking at £1565.00″  GULP no thanks.  So I just bit the bullet went online and changed my insurance over to new vehicle and cancelled the old one. I can always just get 1 day insurance if I need to move it somewhere. Then they had the cheek to charge me £25.00 in fee’s and 34 pence premium increase for the agro of the changeover on their website. So come renewal in July they can go jump.

Just out to make money from a captive audience.

If car fires are putting up insurance premiums I’m not sure it’s BEV’s that are causing the problem. Unless the UK stats are widely different from these in the USA?

How Many Electric Cars Catch Fire Every Year [ 2023 Updated ]