Hybrid cars are actually more expensive to insure for a couple of reasons. First of all, hybrid cars can cost as much as 20% more than their gasoline-powered counterparts. Hybrids simply cost more money to develop because they offer additional parts and software solutions that are complex and thus raise the insurance rates.
If those components break, it means that your insurance should cover it, all of which further raises the costs. Secondly, hybrids spend most of their time in urban city environments, and this also affects insurance costs because cities are associated with the highest insurance rates.
Moreover, hybrids are way more difficult to repair and they are more prone to pedestrian accidents because they can sometimes be completely silent. In addition to that, hybrid cars are mostly associated with people who are doing lots of city miles, which means that there is a higher potential for accidents.
Although hybrids can save you some money if you can fully utilize the hybrid powertrain, sometimes the insurance and maintenance costs can easily surpass that. Be that as it may, you should do your calculations, and if a hybrid still makes sense, go ahead and buy one.
Regular gas cars compared to hybrid cars
In order to visualize the true differences between owning and paying for a hybrid or owning and paying for a gasoline car, we ought to do some thinking. First of all, hybrids are not developed for highway driving which is usually the least associated with accidents and car damages.
On the other hand, an urban driving environment such as rush-hour stop-and-go traffic is mostly associated with car accidents. Insurance companies know this, and they incorporate this into their insurance premium calculators in order to come up with an acceptable and feasible insurance rate.
Some estimates suggest that hybrid cars are 6-10% more expensive to insure when compared to gasoline cars, but numbers do vary greatly depending on the cars in question. Reliability is also an important aspect because gasoline cars are almost always simpler in construction.
This means that there are fewer parts that can go wrong, which also indicates a lower insurance rate. Besides these, some cheaper hybrids cars which are designed for urban city environments are not made to last as much as some equally priced gasoline cars.
On-road safety: Hybrids vs gasoline cars
Even though hybrids do cost more money to insure, they are safer in most instances. The primary reason is that they are heavier and thus capable of exerting more force when compared to a gasoline-powered car. Many estimates suggest that average hybrids weigh as much as 300-500 pounds more than a comparable gasoline variant.
If the hybrid in question also comes with a relatively large battery which is usually placed under the floor, it means that the battery also acts as an additional structural part. Besides being heavier, hybrids also offer more advanced safety systems because they are following an innovation trend set by electric vehicles.
Where they differ is pedestrian safety because some hybrids, especially older ones are sometimes completely silent which makes them harder to notice in loud urban environments. As such, hybrids are known to cause more injuries to pedestrians and cyclists, all of which are taken into consideration when deciding on the insurance rate.
Maintenance and reliability: Hybrids vs gasoline cars
Maintenance and reliability also reveal several differences between hybrids and gasoline cars. As previously stated, hybrids are exponentially more complex in their design and execution. They commonly offer parts that can not be found in most gasoline cars except maybe a few mild-hybrid gasoline variants.
An electric engine, a battery pack, lots of wiring, beefed-up colling systems, loads of advanced software monitoring systems are all packed into a hybrid car, and every single one of these can break. If they do break, the part’s availability is also not as strong as it is when a car needs a regular non-hybrid system part.
This also drives the insurance rate up quite a bit. Furthermore, maintenance-wise, hybrids sometimes require special diagnostic tools which are not as widely available as some diagnostic systems used for regular gasoline cars. All of this can extend service deadlines and make it more difficult to repair a hybrid car.
FAQ Section
Are hybrid cars always going to be more expensive to insure?
It is highly likely that in the future hybrids and gasoline cars should cost about the same. All it takes is a bit more mainstream hybrid cars constantly in production and all of the supply chains should work pretty much the same as with regular gasoline cars. However, it is yet unclear as to when this is going to happen.
Some estimates even suggest that in 10 or 20 years, hybrids will dominate the markets, and if this does happen, hybrids could even cost less than regular gasoline cars.
Do hybrids save you any money?
Hybrid cars can save you money if you are able to completely utilize the hybrid powertrain. This means that you ought to plug the car in whenever it is necessary and that you spend the majority of your driving time in city streets which are filled with traffic to use regenerative braking as much as possible.
However, if you are mostly doing long-distance cruising, a hybrid is not going to save you money, on the contrary, you might even lose quite a bit of money.
Do electric cars cost more to insure?
Yes, they do. EVs are not yet mainstream, and that’s the main reason why they cost so much. Pretty much everyone has heard that Tesla for example is not the best manufacturer when it comes to parts availability, and that’s something insurance companies don’t like because time truly does cost money.
Even though EVs have fewer moving parts that need constant maintenance and are less likely to break, other EV components are actually more prone to breaking. All EVs come with regen braking which uses traction motors that can break easily, and a regular car does not have them at all.
