superswiss

This seems to be a trend and for good reasons. Insurance companies are catching on to the reality of ever bigger and heaver vehicles that cause much more damage during a crash. Vehicles like the e-tron get the double whammy, because it's both a large, heavy SUV and a heavy EV. SUVs ride higher than passenger cars, so in a crash they hit other cars above the bumper and cause major damage. Pedestrian deaths from large, heavy vehicles have also been on the rise. Most people don't realize that they are driving a tank and cause major damage in a crash. This has caused the average cost of claims to go up significantly and insurance companies are reassessing the risk and insurability of these vehicles. It's been a long time coming and it's not just in the USA. It's happening internationally. I just read that in the UK insurance premiums for EVs have gone up by 300% or more, or the policy aren't even getting renewed. Some UK insurance companies have paused issuing policies for EVs while they are reassessing their risk exposure. In the USA, Tesla for comparison is offering their own insurance, but it's based on real-time monitoring of your driving, so if their algorithm doesn't like your driving, you'll get voted off the island.

thebishman

It makes sense that insurance rates for Tesla's are increasing; after all when Musk continues to drive his manufacturing costs down by making bigger and bigger stampings, it's obvious that the ability to repair/replace those stampings are minimized. Hence far more vehicles 'totaled' for much smaller incidents. Rivian's are also reported to have a couple of large stampings in the rear that make even a relatively small 'fender bender' potentially very expensive to repair.

How the increases pertain to BEVs like the etron which is made via 'traditional' techniques escapes me, although I suspect that we are being tarred with the same brush in order to increase profit margins for the insurance industry.

carkarl

Don't have a BEV, and our insurance only went up a little this year. I'd considered it in line with or even below inflation.

We're with Progressive in the SF Bay Area and just renewed for $600 for 6 months, for two cars, two middle-aged drivers and low annual mileage. That's covering a 2017 Q3 and a 2011 Toyota hybrid.

As far as I can remember, the rate wasn't much different when we only had the Q3 on the policy. It seemed like that premium be the expected risk for us as two drivers, and adding the Toyota just moved the numbers around without changing the sum much.

Ryanthegreat1

Those are some insane rates!

Two etrons here at $197 each for 6 months of full coverage.

You all need to get out of the major metropolitan areas.

geeplus

It blows my mind how thats possible in any city. $64 dollars a month for a car this expensive... What kind of deductible and is that full coverage?

Major Metro is where the money is at unfortunately, i'd probably barely make 1/5 my income if I went back to Florida lol.

coldrain85

https://www.thestreet.com/electric-v...pair-estimates

No mention of Audi in this article. It's only certain EV's that are being hit with skyrocketing insurance premiums, and for good reason. It's not going to be sustainable for Rivian and Tesla to keep producing vehicles that cost thousands of dollars a year to insure due to the stupid way that they build their vehicles. 40k to repair a vehicle that got rear ended?! C'mon. With repair bills that crazy, insurability is going to play a bigger part in car buying decisions as the rates continue to increase. And they should increase. I don't want to have to pay higher premiums to subsidize someone's Rivian that got rear ended and needs 40k worth of work. Another consideration is what happens when it's a 5 year old Rivian gets rear ended? Then it's on it's way to a junkyard because it's worth less than the repair cost and the owner gets a payout. No way, auto insurers are going to have to start getting tough with these vehicles and change the way that they insure them. Either make the owner pay a lot more per month, or start limiting coverage. Would anyone buy a Rivian if they knew that they would have to pay out of pocket to have bodywork done on it, or pay $300/mo for insurance? These builders are going to have to start considering repairability when they design their vehicles or they won't be around very long.

mtberman

Audi is in there whether they mention them or not. I've had e-trons since October of 2019 and my premium has almost doubled.

Repair cost: My car was hit by a truck 3/31 and has been in the shop since June (see https://www.audiworld.com/forums/audi-e-tron-q8-e-tron-232/ugh-cherry-busted-finding-body-shop-3021564/page2/#post25809412 and go to post #24)

The shop attributes the months of delays and the skyrocketing costs to Audi, which they say does not build cars that are easily repaired. For example they said Audi requires that every bolt and fastener must be a new Audi part; nothing including the most common bolts and screws may be re-used. That requirement alone resulted in a $3800 supplement to the original estimate. We are up to $28,500 for the damage and the car is still sitting in storage waiting for parts. And the best part is that I bought a Rivian to replace it.

geeplus

why did you wait 3 months after the collision to repair? Thats a ridiculous amount of time for a repair. That might make me re-consider another EV until they figure this crap out.

Ryanthegreat1

That's pretty much all body shops right now. 3+ months to get in. Another 3+ months to get parts. Then another 3+ months for the work to be performed.

Go look up collision repair labor rates and it starts to make sense why no no one is in the trade.

mtberman

Yep, I contacted my preferred shop on March 30 and their next available space was June 22. I said Yes and they honored it. It sounded outrageous at the time, until I called around and everyone was booking 90+ days out. Suddenly June 22 looked great.