What electric car insurance really costs
In 2026, insuring an electric car costs about 13% more than insuring a comparable petrol model, according to industry pricing indices. On a £700 petrol premium that is roughly £90 more a year; on a premium model the gap can be wider. The estimator below turns that into a figure for your own premium, and sets it against the bigger EV saving that usually cancels it out.
How much more will an EV cost to insure?
Enter what a comparable petrol car costs you to insure. We apply the typical 2026 EV uplift, then show how the charging saving offsets it.
Estimated EV premium
£
Likely range £ to £ a year
Off-peak charging saving
Uplift of about 13% from the 2026 EV insurance index. Your quote depends on driver, model and history, always compare.
EV insurance averages ~13% above a comparable petrol car (MoneySuperMarket EV Insurance Index 2026). Charging saving assumes a 7p off-peak tariff vs the 24.67p cap at 3.5 mi/kWh.
The belief that surprises new EV buyers
Plenty of people expect an electric car to be cheaper to insure. The logic seems sound: EVs are clean, often bought by careful owners, and cheap to run, so surely insurers reward them? The opposite is true, and the reason exposes how car insurance is actually priced. Premiums track the cost of a claim, not the virtue of the driver. And an EV claim is expensive.
That is the mental shift this page is about. Once you see insurance as repair-cost pricing rather than risk-reward, the EV premium stops being a mystery, and the levers that reduce it become obvious.
Why EVs cost more to insure
Four forces push an EV premium above its petrol twin. None is about how you drive.
Repair cost, not crash risk
EVs are around 25% more expensive to repair and take about 14% longer to fix than petrol equivalents. Insurers price the repair bill, not your driving.
The battery is the big-ticket part
A replacement EV battery averaged over £7,000 in recent data, before labour. Even minor underbody knocks can threaten the pack, so insurers price in the worst case.
Specialist repairers are scarce
High-voltage work needs trained technicians and equipment. Fewer approved bodyshops means longer waits and pricier courtesy-car cover during repairs.
EVs have a higher list price
Many popular EVs are premium models. A higher value to replace means a higher premium, exactly as for an expensive petrol or diesel car.
Add these up and the picture is clear: the EV premium is a repair-bill premium. The car is more expensive to put right after a knock, so the insurer charges more to stand behind it. That also explains why the gap is much smaller for a mainstream hatchback EV than for a premium saloon, the repair exposure scales with the car.
Why generic comparisons mislead
Most "EV insurance" pages do one of two unhelpful things: they either quote a scary single premium with no context, or they wave the difference away as temporary. The truth sits in between, and it has two parts most pages miss:
- ✓The premium gap is repair-driven and model-specific, so a blanket "EVs cost X" figure is close to meaningless for your car;
- ✓The insurance gap should be read against the EV's other savings (charging, servicing, tax), not in isolation, which is the only way to see the true cost of ownership.
The insider view: the premium is falling for a reason
Here is the part worth understanding. The EV insurance premium is not a fixed fact of physics, it is a snapshot of a repair market that is still maturing. In the early EV years, almost any battery-area damage meant writing off or replacing the whole pack, because few repairers could safely assess it. That single fact inflated premiums hugely.
What is quietly changing the price As more bodyshops train high-voltage technicians and battery diagnostics improve, packs are increasingly repaired at module level rather than replaced whole. Every such advance pulls the average claim cost down, and premiums follow. The 13% gap of 2026 is already well below the peaks of a few years ago, and it is structurally pointed downward. The premium reflects today's repair capacity, not the car's risk, which is why shopping around matters so much: insurers are pricing the same car very differently as their EV repair data catches up.
The practical consequence is that EV premiums reward comparison more than petrol premiums do. Two insurers can differ by hundreds of pounds on an identical EV simply because one has better EV claims data and a wider repair network. That spread is your opportunity.
What it means in your total cost
In practice, the higher premium is real but modest, often £100 to £150 a year on a mainstream EV. The mistake is to judge it alone. An EV charged on an off-peak tariff saves around £350 a year on fuel versus the price cap, before counting lower servicing (no oil, fewer moving parts) and, for company-car drivers, far lower tax. The insurance gap is usually the smallest of the EV cost lines, and the charging saving alone tends to swallow it whole.
What to actually do
Compare widely, every renewal
EV premiums vary far more between insurers than petrol ones. The same car can differ by hundreds of pounds, so never auto-renew.
Pay annually, not monthly
Monthly instalments are effectively a credit agreement with interest. Paying the year up front is one of the cleanest savings available.
Raise your voluntary excess
If you can comfortably cover a higher excess, it lowers the premium. Only go as high as you could actually pay after a claim.
Judge it in total cost
Set the higher premium against the charging, servicing and tax savings. The EV usually still wins once all four lines are counted.
The bottom line
Electric cars cost about 13% more to insure, driven by repair cost and the battery, not by how they are driven. The gap is real, model-specific and shrinking as the repair network matures. Treat it as one line in the total cost, not the headline: compare widely, pay annually, and remember that the off-peak charging saving alone usually more than covers the higher premium. An EV is still cheaper to own, the insurance is simply the one line where it pays a little more.
EV insurance FAQ
The Selectra expert answers your questions
Yes, on average. Industry indices in 2026 put electric car insurance at roughly 13% more than a comparable petrol car. The reason is repair cost, not accident risk: EVs are about 25% dearer to repair, take longer to fix, and carry a battery worth several thousand pounds. The gap varies a lot by model and is narrower for mainstream EVs than for premium ones.
Four things drive it: higher repair costs (about 25% more), the battery (a replacement averages over £7,000 and even minor underbody damage can threaten it), a shortage of trained high-voltage repairers (longer repairs, more courtesy-car cost), and the higher list price of many popular EV models. None of these is about how you drive, they are all about what a claim costs the insurer.
The gap is shrinking. As more bodyshops train high-voltage technicians, battery diagnostics improve (so packs are repaired rather than replaced), and more insurers compete for EV business, the premium difference has narrowed from earlier peaks. Expect the gap to keep closing as the repair network matures, but a modest premium over petrol is likely to remain while EVs stay more expensive to fix.
The usual levers work harder on EVs: pay annually rather than monthly (monthly is effectively a credit agreement), increase your voluntary excess if you can cover it, build no-claims, add a named experienced driver, fit an approved tracker, and keep mileage realistic. Above all, compare widely: EV premiums vary more between insurers than petrol ones because insurers price EV risk very differently.
Usually, yes. The insurance premium is higher, but it is one line in the total cost of ownership. Set the roughly £100 to £150 a year of extra insurance against the £350 a year saved by charging on an off-peak EV tariff, plus lower servicing and (for company-car drivers) far lower BiK tax. The charging saving alone typically more than covers the insurance gap.