People like to discuss and speculate which type of car will be the most expensive after purchase – combustion or electric cars. An insurance company has now conducted a study on how the costs of repairing damage are distributed.
According to a study by Allianz insurance, electric cars are considerably more expensive to repair after accidents than conventional cars. According to this, the average damage cost in fully comprehensive insurance is ten percent higher for purely electric cars, and even 50 percent higher for plug-in hybrids. In particular, changing the expensive batteries has a big impact.
Damage data from the years 2018 to 2020 were evaluated for the investigation.
In comparison, accidents in particular have much more expensive consequences: “We are about 30 percent higher in repairing collision damage with electric vehicles,” said Carsten Reinkemeyer, Head of Safety Research at the Allianz Center for Technology.
The reason for the investigation is the rapidly increasing number of electric cars on the streets. According to figures from the Federal Motor Vehicle Office, a good 312,000 pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids were newly registered in Germany in the first half of the year. According to Statistics Austria, there were 15,347 electric cars and 7,940 plug-in hybrids in Austria.
The higher repair costs are due to the fact that batteries cost a lot of money – “up to 20,000 euros”, says Allianz board member Frank Sommerfeld. Damage to the underbody of electric cars means damage to the battery.
Battery replacement after airbag deployment
But safety regulations and manufacturer specifications also play a role. “There are things that don’t happen with conventional vehicles,” said Reinkemeyer. For example, “work on high-voltage vehicles” should only take place in qualified workshops. Some manufacturers stipulate that the battery must be replaced after an airbag has been deployed.
Marten bites can also be very expensive, because high-voltage cables that have been bitten would also have to be replaced. A cable set can cost up to 7,000 euros. According to the safety researcher, some car manufacturers have found an inexpensive method to prevent such expensive repair costs: protective covers for the cables. The consequence of the high repair costs is that both pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids are on average somewhat more expensive to insure than conventional cars.
E-cars are not more prone to breakdowns
E-car owners do not have to worry, however, that their vehicles are generally more prone to breakdowns than cars with gasoline or diesel engines. Virtually every driver knows the most common cause of breakdowns – the vehicle doesn’t start: “It’s hard to believe, but electric vehicles also need a normal starter battery like combustion vehicles,” said James Wallner, CEO of ADAC car insurance.
There have been several headlines in recent years because of burning electric cars. However, according to Allianz, electric vehicles do not go up in flames more often than conventionally motorized cars: “At the moment, we do not see a higher probability of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles,” says Reinkemeyer.
Across Germany, around 15,000 cars burn on average every year, including only a double-digit number of electric vehicles. As a rule, burning electric cars can be extinguished before the battery goes up in flames. “These fires proceed as we know it from vehicle fires,” said Karsten Göwecke, Deputy Chief of the Berlin Fire Brigade. However, according to the automotive industry association VDA, the extinguishing takes longer and the extinguishing agent requirement is usually higher.