Is it time for disruptive change to EV auto insurance?

[dgennetten]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/oth...by-insurer-over-99-cents-of-studs/ar-BB1n5nvl

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[COdogman]

It’s definitely needed but I won’t be holding my breath. Insurance companies always seem to get away with this crap. And if state insurance commissions push back, they simply refuse to insure whatever it is going forward. Like they are now with housing in areas prone to wildfires and hurricanes.

 

[electruck]

That article and the RR video are a little misleading. Perhaps the stud would cost 99 cents (seems more like hyberbole than fact but the cost of the stud certainly is inconsequential to the overall repair cost) but they didn't actually address whether the structure it connected to needed repair (which would require opening up the pack) nor did they address ensuring the pack were properly re-sealed against water intrusion. They also glossed over the suspension repairs such as the reservoir that had sheared off and needed to be replaced which, at a minimum, brings along with it the need to flush the entire system to remove contaminants and potentially replace valves and other components. Probably a number of other things that needed to be addressed and all the little costs start to add up.

I'm not at all suggesting that the truck couldn't have been repaired without having to total it but the the total repair costs for that vehicle are being grossly under-represented. I agree with the overall message RR is putting out there and agree the insurance companies would rather total than repair. There are definitely a lot of things that need to change with both the insurance companies and EV manufacturers but those that stretch the truth too far tend to lose their credibility.

 

[BigSkies]

I think the underlying issue is a lack of people that know how to properly diagnose and repair EV’s. This is not helped by Tesla and Rivian’s insistence on keeping most servicing in house.

A competent person was quickly able to determine that there was no structural damage to the battery pack. How many auto techs out there could make this same assertion? Probably not many.

This insurance company has about $80k worth of reasons not to total a car. They did total it because no one knew how to diagnose it.

Given a lack of information, and a general idea that the HV pack might be a safety or fire damage, I don’t think the insurance company was in a position to make any other decision.

Learning the skills to properly diagnose HV batteries would probably be a very lucrative career move at this point in time.

 

[docwhiz]

Tesla offers their own insurance in many states. They know the real cost to repair their cars.
Does Rivian offer insurance?

 

[COdogman]

Tesla offers their own insurance in many states. They know the real cost to repair their cars.
Does Rivian offer insurance?

Rivian partners with Nationwide.

 

[Ecupip]

Insurance companies are partly to blame. I hold the repair shops more responsible though. They get away with charging thousands for a few hours of work.

 

[ebarke]

I think the underlying issue is a lack of people that know how to properly diagnose and repair EV’s. This is not helped by Tesla and Rivian’s insistence on keeping most servicing in house.

A competent person was quickly able to determine that there was no structural damage to the battery pack. How many auto techs out there could make this same assertion? Probably not many.

This insurance company has about $80k worth of reasons not to total a car. They did total it because no one knew how to diagnose it.

Given a lack of information, and a general idea that the HV pack might be a safety or fire damage, I don’t think the insurance company was in a position to make any other decision.

Learning the skills to properly diagnose HV batteries would probably be a very lucrative career move at this point in time.

This is exactly the problem, but it's not just EV's. They do the same for other low volume specialty vehicles. Lotus is an example of this. If the front clam on a Lotus Elise gets cracked, most typical insurance companies would total the car because they have no idea how much the repair costs are because of the low volume, and no information in any of the repair software that's out there. They also don't understand the values of these vehicles either.

 

[SwampNut]

Stupid and useless manufactured hype and clickbait. My experience and my neighbor's are only two examples, so it doesn't really make a statistic, but we've both seen great reductions in cost with EVs. First with the Tesla, the cost went down right away. And then when we moved to Tesla insurance, which includes a monitored safe driving factor, it went down even more. And now with the Rivian, it's down even further. We're paying less than $100/mo for two people, two cars, with 100/300 and $1k deductibles. Can it get any cheaper?

 

[defcon888]

It’s definitely needed but I won’t be holding my breath. Insurance companies always seem to get away with this crap. And if state insurance commissions push back, they simply refuse to insure whatever it is going forward. Like they are now with housing in areas prone to wildfires and hurricanes.

It isn't only EV's, try getting home insurance in California. For fire insurance. the only viable option is a state-run insurance plan and it costs over $4,000/year for "blanket" insurance that the regular home policy doesn't cover.

Can't wait to leave this state in a couple of years.

 

[NY_Rob]

Regarding how to determine if the battery pack is no longer sealed due to damage... back in the late 1950's Sikorsky invented a simple, ingenious and inexpensive Blade Integrity Monitoring system that provided a quick 100% positive visual method for pilots to see if the main rotor blades were compromised. All you had to do was look up through the plexiglass cabin roof as you started spinning up the main rotor and count four black indicators going past and you knew the main rotor blades had no cracks.
Sikorsky pressurized the interior of it's large main rotor blades with a few psi of nitrogen and put a clear indicator cup near the rotor root. If the blade was good/no cracks you saw black lines in the indicator, if the rotor blade had a crack or was otherwise compromised, spring pressure would push the indicator piston back inwards and you would see a series of red stripes in the indicator. It was a simple and inexpensive method for pilots ensure that rotor blade integrity had not been compromised. Checking the "BIM's" was a vital part of the pre-flight check at the beginning of your day before flying.

With the above in mind, there's no reason EV manufacturers couldn't include a super simple and inexpensive pressure monitor device (the whole device would probably cost less than $25) in their expensive battery packs. We and the repair shops could then easily determine if the pack seal had been compromised before totaling a vehicle simply because no one knows if a 99 cent broken stud has damaged the pack seal.

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