What insurance on an electric vehicle costs in SA

Hanno Labuschagne

Journalist
Staff member
Joined
Sep 2, 2019
Messages
5,599
Reaction score
3,889
What insurance on an electric vehicle costs in SA

Insurance on electric vehicles (EVs) in South Africa is costly compared to cars with internal combustion engines (ICEs), but premiums could decrease due to better safety features that can improve policyholders' driving histories.

That is according to Ernest North, co-founder of Naked Insurance, an online platform that lets South Africans take out insurance in minutes on their car, home, or other personal items using a mobile app and website.

North said Naked has recently recorded an increase in insurance quotes and policies sold on EVs.
 
Would be good to see the comparitive insurance premium on similarly priced non-EVs ?
 
So according to cANCer no encouragement for the SA public to purchase electric cars. All they do is tax the shyt out of the purchase price.
 
Damn, you could get a hatchback for the price of insurance on these EVs.
 
Makes sense, I’m sure the electric motors are expensive to repair if they can be repaired rather than replaced. Brakes and kinetic recovery bits could increase replacement costs.
 
That's sad, fuel advantage nullified by insurance premium costs.

But those rates are madness, near R2k premium for a R700k BMW with a 48yr old driver. What would the equivalent premium be for a R700k ICE BMW and the same driver?

I wonder if those rates are due to the repair costs, EVs are rare on Sa roads so parts will be costly and I can imagine considering the integrated battery situation that they can be written off quite easily?
 
Just realised the batteries explode violently and when one goes chances are they will all go and conventional fire extinguishers can’t put out such a fire, so the car will burn out. Possible factor on insurance pricing.
 
That's sad, fuel advantage nullified by insurance premium costs.

But those rates are madness, near R2k premium for a R700k BMW with a 48yr old driver. What would the equivalent premium be for a R700k ICE BMW and the same driver?

I wonder if those rates are due to the repair costs, EVs are rare on Sa roads so parts will be costly and I can imagine considering the integrated battery situation that they can be written off quite easily?
I imagine it's also due to parts availability. There's nowhere near the volume of EVs on the road to make parts easily available.

Same reason why insuring a 3 series would cost less than insuring the equivalent Peugeot, despite the 3 series costing more...
 
That's sad, fuel advantage nullified by insurance premium costs.

But those rates are madness, near R2k premium for a R700k BMW with a 48yr old driver. What would the equivalent premium be for a R700k ICE BMW and the same driver?

I wonder if those rates are due to the repair costs, EVs are rare on Sa roads so parts will be costly and I can imagine considering the integrated battery situation that they can be written off quite easily?

Ice model would be about half of that and even less.
 
Ice model would be about half of that and even less.
Which makes getting an EV absolutely pointless unless you have money to burn.

I don't think hybrids get hammered like this by insurers?
 
Which makes getting an EV absolutely pointless unless you have money to burn.

I don't think hybrids get hammered like this by insurers?

Yeah and to think you are paying that much and you cant even drive cross country with your car, All you can do is drive around in the city with it.

Not to mention you most definitely need a second car if you own an EV, so add another R1000+ on insurance for that. EVs are not for the average joe.
 
Fuel is a very small cost in relation to maintenance and fixed costs per kilometer.
 
Fuel is a very small cost in relation to maintenance and fixed costs per kilometer.
Fuel consumption is a factor in the sale but guilt is the greater factor, so they will still pay if they have the means.
 
Drove a friends i3 a few days back, what a little rocket. It was my first EV experience, and the Regenerative Breaking is quite a new experience.

I did not ask him about his insurance premiums though..
 
Drove a friends i3 a few days back, what a little rocket. It was my first EV experience, and the Regenerative Breaking is quite a new experience.

I did not ask him about his insurance premiums though..
Now maybe a good time to ask and report back.:p
 
This is strange, I pay nowhere near that amount on my i-Pace, so must be specific to Naked insurance, I pay about 60% of the mentioned payment (for R1500 excess) with zero excess. Maybe they don't have a clue how to value an EV properly yet.

Relative to purchase price, my payment was about the same as the payment on my wife's XC90 at the time.
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter