Toronto, Ontario — LexisNexis recently reported to Green Car Reports that electric vehicles’ “instant torque” often leads to a greater increase in insured losses.
Xiaohui Lu, LexisNexis vice president of global business development specifically told Green Car reports that “the extra torque delivered by the powerful EV motor (is) positively correlated with their loss cost.”
Notably, with more than 300 pounds per feet of torque, LexisNexis’ internal analysis of insurance claims across EV brands and insurers suggests that the vehicles’ weight to speed ratios correspond with high insurance losses.
However, as Lu further noted in LexisNexis’ report, “while torque contributes to the higher insurance loss cost of electric vehicles, it is important not to view these numbers solely through the lens of torque. For instance, higher torque vehicles often have higher prices, more expensive repair costs and sometimes even higher daily mileages, all of which are also linked to increased insurance loss costs.”
“Our data also shows a distinctive learning curve for the drivers newly switched from ICE vehicles to EVs,” Lu further reported to Green Car Reports.
Moreover, looking across the board, according to LexisNexis data released in June, electric vehicles have a 17 percent higher claims frequency and 34 percent higher claims severity versus what it considered to be “traditional segments” of the vehicle market, with both the number of paid claims and the payment amount of claims rising faster than those figures for the market at large.
To see the full report, click here.
