Electric car insurance: what insurer loss data show, and what to check on an EV quote

An EV quote can come in higher, but the insurer loss data we could read do not show the EVs studied filing more claims. In the Highway Loss Data Institute's December 2020 study of nine models sold in both electric and gasoline versions, the electric versions had 20% fewer collision claims and 19% lower collision losses, adjusted for mileage. They also had a base price 62% higher.

That pairing, fewer claims but a more expensive car, is most of the story. Insurers price the specific vehicle, and IIHS notes that costlier models tend to be more costly to repair or replace, which is what collision and comprehensive pay for on your own car. This guide sets out what the HLDI research measured and what it left out, then gives a question list for the parts of an EV quote that differ from a gas car's: battery damage, chargers, parts and repair networks. It does not state an EV premium, because no public source we could read publishes one that would apply to you.

Estimates and published averages, not a quote. Not insurance advice. State rules and insurer rules vary. Confirm requirements with your state insurance regulator or a licensed agent in your state.

What the insurer loss data measured

The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), part of IIHS-HLDI, analyzes auto insurance claim data and publishes losses by vehicle. Its records come from companies representing more than 85% of the U.S. private passenger auto insurance market, according to the IIHS auto insurance research page. That scale is why its studies are the usual starting point for questions like this one.

HLDI compared electric vehicles with their exact conventional counterparts in 2015, 2016, 2017 and again in Bulletin Vol. 37, No. 25, published December 2020. A counterpart had to share the platform and nameplate and come from the same manufacturer, so the comparison is as close to like-for-like as real-world data allow. The 2020 study covered nine pairs, model years 2012 to 2020, with claims through calendar year 2019. It added mileage from CARFAX odometer records, so that an EV driven less is not credited with being safer just for being parked more.

The regression also controlled for calendar year, garaging state, vehicle density, the rated driver's age group, gender and marital status, standard or nonstandard risk, and, for collision, the deductible range. That is close to the list of factors an insurer's own rating plan uses, which makes the result more relevant to pricing than a raw comparison would be.

The results: claim frequency, severity and overall losses

HLDI reports three measures. Claim frequency is how many claims are filed per insured vehicle year. Claim severity is the average payment per claim. Overall losses combine the two into loss dollars per insured vehicle year, which is the closest of the three to what a premium has to cover. Results are the electric version compared with its gasoline twin, with mileage controlled where the bulletin says so.

Two points in that table matter most for a quote. The severity gap that earlier studies found has mostly closed. HLDI's 2017 study had found collision severity 7% higher for the electric versions; by the 2020 update it was 1% and no longer statistically significant. The observed average collision claim was more than $1,300 higher for the electric versions in 2013, and by 2019 the two were on par.

The second point is how the measures combine. Overall losses are roughly frequency times severity, and HLDI's numbers multiply out that way. Our arithmetic, as a check: for collision, (1 - 0.20) x (1 + 0.01) = 0.808, about 19% lower, which matches HLDI's -19%. For property damage liability, (1 - 0.17) x (1 + 0.03) = 0.855, about 14.5% lower, against HLDI's -14%. A higher severity can therefore be outweighed by a lower frequency, which is what happened in this data.

Why an EV quote can still be higher

Lower loss rates on these nine pairs do not settle the price question for any one EV, for reasons the bulletin itself documents.

The cars cost more. Weighted by exposure, the electric versions had a base price 62% higher and a curb weight 9% higher than their twins. The gap narrowed over the study period but was still $16,029 in 2019. IIHS notes on its auto insurance page that larger models tend to be more expensive to buy and more costly to repair or replace, and heavier vehicles tend to do more damage to whatever they hit. Collision and comprehensive are the coverages that pay to repair or replace your own car, so they are where a more expensive vehicle can show up in a quote even when its claim rate is lower; ask the insurer which coverages account for the difference.

New EVs looked different from older ones. When HLDI split the results by vehicle age, collision claim severity for new electric vehicles was a significant 12% higher than for their twins, while older vehicles showed no significant difference. HLDI suggests depreciation may play a role: using Kelley Blue Book prices, it showed a 2019 Fiat 500 electric losing 61% of its value in the first year, against 33% for the gas Fiat 500. A buyer insuring a new EV is in the group where severity was higher.

Total loss payments were larger. A vehicle is a total loss when the estimated repair cost plus salvage exceeds the repaired value. HLDI found conventional twins were more likely to be declared total losses, but when an EV was totaled, the average payment was higher every year from 2013 to 2019: $32,988 against $19,025 in 2013, narrowing to a $1,810 difference by 2019. How a total loss settlement is calculated, and what happens if you owe more than the payout, is covered in the total loss guide and the gap insurance explainer.

And the cars in the study are not the whole EV market. The nine pairs are small cars and small crossovers. NHTSA describes electric and hybrid vehicles today as ranging from compact cars to pickup trucks, and many current models have no gas twin; this research measured none of them.

What the research left out

State the limits plainly, because they decide how much weight the numbers can carry.

• Tesla. Excluded from the 2020 study for lack of a gasoline twin. The bulletin notes that earlier HLDI work found Tesla losses higher than those of other large luxury cars with gas engines, and that the difference grew when adjusted for miles. HLDI's April 2016 bulletin (Vol. 33, No. 4) put the Model S collision claim frequency 31.3% above its comparison group of conventional luxury cars without the mileage control and 36.9% above with it.
• Comprehensive coverage. Not studied in 2020. Theft, fire, flood, hail and animal strikes are paid under comprehensive, so the study says nothing about those losses for EVs.
• Data age. Claims run through calendar year 2019. The December 2020 bulletin is the most recent public HLDI comparison of this kind that we read in full. IIHS and HLDI have published later material on electric vehicles, but not in a detailed form we could read and cite here, so a newer study would supersede these figures.
• Repair costs as such. HLDI measures what insurers paid, which mixes repair prices, parts, labor and total losses. It does not break out battery repairs or sensor calibration.
• Your car. These are group averages for nine pairs. Your own price depends on the specific model, trim, garaging address, drivers, record, limits and deductibles.

For a model-specific view, HLDI publishes insurance losses by make and model for hundreds of vehicles under six coverages, shown as a percentage above or below the average for all passenger vehicles and adjusted for driver age, state, density and other non-vehicle factors. HLDI cautions that new models take time to accumulate data and that a substantially redesigned model may not match the experience of the earlier version with the same name. If your EV appears there, its collision and comprehensive figures are a better guide to the physical damage part of a quote than any EV average. Electric golf carts and neighborhood electric vehicles are a different legal class from the passenger models in these comparisons, with an insurance rule that varies by state, compared in the golf cart and low-speed vehicle insurance by state guide.

Mileage: the part of the difference that belongs to the driver

The electric versions in the 2020 study were driven 39% fewer miles per day than their twins. Among vehicles with known mileage, 82% of electric exposure was for cars averaging under 30 miles a day, against 44% for the gas versions. HLDI's conclusion is that the lower losses are due only partly to fewer miles: when mileage was added to the model, the frequency and loss advantages shrank but stayed significant.

For a buyer, that splits the advantage in two. Some of it travels with how much you drive, which an insurer sees only if it asks about annual mileage or measures it. If you drive little, a mileage-based or telematics program may reflect that more directly than a standard rate; the trade-offs are in usage-based insurance vs traditional pricing. The part that remains after mileage is a vehicle and driver-population effect, and it appears only in insurers' rating if their own data show it for your model.

Battery damage, floods and handling after a crash

The battery is where an EV claim differs most from a gas car's, and federal safety guidance explains why adjusters treat it carefully. NHTSA says hybrid and electric vehicle batteries are highly corrosive and should not be exposed to standing water, and that flooded vehicles can create high-voltage shock hazards that could lead to fire. After damage, it advises assuming the battery and components are energized, warns that physical damage can cause immediate or delayed release of toxic or flammable gases and fire, and says not to park a damaged vehicle with a lithium-ion battery in a garage or within 50 feet of a house, structure, other vehicle or combustibles. It also notes EVs can be damaged if towed on a drive axle connected to an electric motor. Battery capacity lost to age and charging is a different matter: it is wear, which no collision or comprehensive line pays, as set out in does car insurance cover mechanical breakdown.

Flood and noncrash fire losses fall under comprehensive, as IIHS's coverage summary describes. That makes comprehensive, and its deductible, a bigger decision for an EV owner in a flood-prone area than it might be otherwise. The difference between the two physical damage coverages is set out in comprehensive vs collision, and how to pick the deductible on each is in choosing a deductible.

For storage and towing after a claim, the practical questions are who pays. Ask whether the policy's towing or roadside coverage pays for flatbed transport if the manufacturer requires it, and whether storage charges at an outdoor lot with the required clearance are covered while a claim is open.

Home chargers: which policy is involved

The Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center says most EV drivers charge at home overnight, using either the Level 1 cordset that comes with the vehicle or Level 2 (240 V) equipment installed for faster charging. It notes that Level 2 installations must comply with local and state codes, may need permits from local building authorities, and fall under Article 625 of the National Electrical Code, and it recommends safety-certified equipment and a certified electrical contractor.

None of that is an insurance rule, but it shapes the insurance question. A wall-mounted charger is wired into your home, so damage to it may be a homeowners or renters policy question rather than an auto one, and a portable cordset kept in the car may be treated differently again. We found no regulator source stating how auto or home policies treat chargers in general, so the answer is in your own policy wording. Ask both insurers, in writing, and keep the permit and installation paperwork, since an unpermitted installation is the kind of fact an insurer may ask about after a loss.

EV quote-check list

Use this list on every EV quote, and ask each insurer the same questions so the answers can be compared. It is a list of questions, not statements about what any policy includes.

Write the answers on the quote, and for anything that matters to you, ask the insurer to show where the policy or an endorsement says it. The quote checklist has space for the standard coverage details to record alongside these.

Comparing EV quotes on equal terms

The most common mistake with EV quotes is comparing a gas car quote at one set of coverages with an EV quote at another. Before deciding the EV costs more to insure, price both vehicles with identical liability limits, the same collision and comprehensive deductibles, the same drivers and the same term. The method for doing that across insurers is in how to compare car insurance quotes.

Then look at where the difference sits. If it is in liability, that is mostly the driver, the address and the limits; for the twin-study EVs, HLDI found property damage liability losses 14% lower, though its earlier Tesla Model S results ran the other way. If it is in collision and comprehensive, ask whether the model's price and repair costs explain it, which is what IIHS's point about costlier vehicles and HLDI's new-car severity result would suggest. If an EV quote is high across every coverage, the reasons are likely the same ones that apply to any car, set out in why your car insurance is so high.

A state benchmark helps place the total. The Car Rate Checker compares a quote with the NAIC 2024 combined average premium for your state, a published average for all insured vehicles, not a figure for EVs. And if you are wondering whether the national price background is rising or falling, the monthly federal index is tracked in are car insurance prices going down in 2026. More guides on vehicle type and gig driving sit under rideshare, gig work and vehicles.

Published averages and benchmarks, not a quote. Not insurance advice. This site does not sell insurance. For questions about a specific policy, a licensed agent in your state or your state insurance department can help.

Questions readers ask

Battery, flood and total loss questions all land on the two physical damage coverages, so see what each one pays for before you set the deductibles on your EV quote.