Electric car owners won't pay higher insurance premiums

Electric car owners in Vancouver won't pay more for insurance than those with conventional vehicles, at least for now, according to the Insurance Corp. of B.C.

Vancouver city council decided this week to permit low-speed electric vehicles on streets with speed limits of 50 km/h or less, becoming the first major city in Canada to do so, following the lead of Oak Bay. Transport Canada has expressed concern about LSVs, which are not required to meet the same safety standards -- such as having air bags and anchored seatbelts -- as regular vehicles.

Transport Canada's Maryse Durette said the agency has done crash tests on LSVs and "the test results to date confirm that low-speed vehicles provide a substantially lower level of occupant protection than conventional passenger cars."
As a result, the agency recommends such vehicles be used only on roads in controlled environments such as gated communities or university campuses -- though provinces have the right to make their own regulations.

Spokesman Adam Grossman said while ICBC is aware of Transport Canada's safety concerns, for now it plans to insure electric cars the same way as conventional vehicles.

That means a new driver using an electric car for personal use, but not for daily commuting, would pay about $1,300 a year for basic and optional insurance -- similar to what ICBC charges someone driving a Honda Fit or Chevrolet Aveo.

So far, Grossman said, ICBC has insured only 21 electric cars in all of B.C., not enough to draw any conclusions about whether the vehicles are any less safe than conventional cars.

As more electric vehicles are insured and ICBC has a chance to study their claim history more closely, premiums could be affected, said Grossman. "If the number of these type of vehicles was to grow significantly, we would be in a position to do a better assessment," he said.