Motorists reluctant on electric cars due to 54% higher insurance

Over half of Britons are not planning to make the switch to driving an electric car with 86% saying they prefer petrol or diesel vehicles.

That’s according to a new survey by the price comparison experts at Quotezone.co.uk who quizzed motorists on making the change to an electric vehicle.

57% of those questioned said they were not planning to go electric with 8% claiming they will only make the switch just before the 2035 deadline set by the government.

78% said they are not looking forward to the switch to an electric vehicle with only 9% saying they intend to make the switch within the next two years. A fifth (19%) say the switch will have to wait 2-10 years.

By 2035 all newly registered cars in the UK will need to be electric or zero emission vehicles. Petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be for sale.

By 2030 80% of new cars sold in Great Britain will be zero emission with that figure reaching 100% by 2035.

These changes fall under the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate (ZEV) which sets out the percentage of new zero emission vehicles manufacturers will be required to produce each year up to 2030.

Questioned on why they’re not prepared to make the switch to electric earlier, over a third (36%) of respondents said the cars were too expensive with one in five (21%) saying the charging infrastructure wasn’t good enough – with over 62,000 charging points across just under 33,000 charging locations in the UK.

Other reasons included concerns over mileage (11%), the cost of installing a home charging device (4%) and high insurance costs (2%).

Of all engine types, insurance costs are normally highest for an electric vehicle, currently averaging around £996 annually – that’s 54% more expensive than the average petrol vehicle and 13% more expensive than this time last year.

While diesel and petrol insurance premiums look to be starting to decrease slightly throughout 2024 – electric premiums continue to remain high.