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A great article to help with question

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How Are Electric Car Batteries Made?

Electric vehicles define the future of the automotive industry.

So, we've put together a mini series of guides on EV batteries, to give you a better understanding on how they're made, how they work and what happens to them when they've done their job and powered your car for the past 10 years.

So, let's start from the beginning at how the batteries are made!

Now, don't worry - we're not transporting you back to school for a complicated science lesson on how electric vehicle batteries are made. Instead of making it super techy, we're going to try and make it simple, whilst still educating you on the heart of your electric vehicle: the battery.

Lithium-ion batteries - which are the most common battery types used in electric vehicles - are formed of certain elements including carbon or graphite, a metal oxide and lithium salt. These elements make up positive and negative electrodes, and combined with the electrolyte, produces an electric current that makes the battery work to power your vehicle and make them wheels turn. It is also the same battery that you will find in your everyday technologies, such as mobile phones and laptops - just on a bigger scale!

The beauty of how electric vehicle batteries are made is that 80% of the components are recyclable, so when your battery has come to the end of its lifecycle, it can be stripped down to separate the raw materials to reuse them - but this will be covered in part three of our EV battery series, so we won't go into too much detail here.
But where are the batteries made?
Just 2 hours away from the Scottish Borders, Sunderland hosts one of the largest battery plants in Europe, where Nissan produce lithium-ion batteries. Here, they have already produced batteries for their own electric vehicle; the Nissan LEAF. The plant has also been awarded with the production of future generation electric batteries, so we can expect a lot of batteries to be manufactured here.

The UK are moving closer to being a major source of supplying materials and plants for battery production, and the government and automotive industry are working towards creating a facility to manufacture battery cells.

The Head of the Advanced Propulsion Centre, Ian Constance, said there are "the opportunities available for the automotive and chemical sectors to come together and collaborate to make the UK the go-to place for battery cell manufacturing."

With the increase of EV's being produced and bought, we're sure it won't be long until battery production is in full swing!

Stay tuned for part two of our EV battery series, where we will be talking you through how EV batteries work!
Click Here To Learn About Electric Vehicles

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How Are Electric Car Batteries Made? So, we've put together a mini series of guides on EV batteries, to give you a better understanding on how they're made, how they work and what happens to them when they've done their job and powered your car for the past 10 years.

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Do We Have Enough Rare Earth Materials for EV cars? 

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Do We Have Enough Rare Earth Materials for EV cars? 

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Read for #2 help.

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It's important to distinguish between: 'rare-', 'precious-', and 'critical-' earth elements. The terms are not interchangeable, but unfortunately often are in popular media. It's also important to distinguish between 'reserves' and 'resources'. Reserves denote the amountthat can be technically recovered at a cost that is financially feasible at the present price. Resources include allthat can be technically recovered at any price.

Electronics

Electric vehicles typically use two precious earth metals: gold and silver. These are used in minute quantities in the circuit boards, which also occurs in modern fossil fuelled vehicles. The circuit boards run the electronics. These valuable metals are fully recyclable.

Batteries

Critical earth elements typically found in Electric Vehicle batteries are: lithium and cobalt, both fully recyclable (including in NZ.) Both Lithium and cobalt metals can be reused over and over repeatedly.

These two elements are not particularly rare - cobalt can be found in most rocks, and lithium is the first metal in the periodic table and one of only three elements created in the primordial Big Bang. Lithium is the 32nd most common element on our planet. But both metals are critical because of modern societies' dependence on lithium-ion battery technology for mobile phones, laptops, and now EVs. And also, in the case of cobalt, because of geopolitics: the bulk of the cobalt supply comes from the politically unstable Democratic Republic of Congo. While there are plenty of lithium and cobalt resources, there are fewer reserves of them.

Cobalt is a byproduct of nickel and copper mines, and is therefore dependent on the economic viability of those mining operations.

Worldwide sources of lithium are broken down by ore-deposit type as follows: closed-basin brines, 58%; pegmatites and related granites, 26%; lithium-enriched clays, 7%; oilfield brines, 3%; geothermal brines, 3%; and lithium-enriched zeolites, 3% (2013 statistics USGS). Of those, closed basin brines are the most important source of lithium reserves.

Put simplistically, dissolved lithium salts are most commonly mined by drilling down to underground saline deposits and pumping the saline to the surface where it is left to dry in the desert sun, before being processed into lithium metal (and other elements, like Potash and Magnesium.) Typically they don't pump hot fresh water into the deposits - that's a different process used to dissolve the rock salts in an alternative method of potash mining.

Motors

Rare earth elements, such as neodymium, terbium, or dysprosium, are found in a permanent magnet motor. Not all EVs use permanent magnet motors. Induction motors are based on copper coils.

"Some electric car motors use the permanent magnet technology, probably the most famous is the Tesla Model 3 Long Range. All the other Tesla models - Model X and Model 3 standard - use induction motors," said David Merriman, a senior analyst at metals consultancy Roskill.

Other parts of an EV

Other parts of an EV may use rare earths to produce, eg: aluminium. But a traditional car is just as likely to be full of all the same components, eg: steel, plastics, epoxies, circuit boards, carbon fibre, glass, nickel, copper, lead acid battery, etc.

So, when the argument comes up that Electric Vehicles use rare earth metals, the nay-sayers often conveniently forget that the status quo (ie: fossil fuelled vehicles) is no better, and probably worse, in this respect.

Earth Elements used in Fossil Fuelled Cars that are not used in BEVs

In comparison, we must also remember that fossil fuelled internal combustion engines also use precious and rare earth metals. The catalytic converter, whose job it is to reduce nasty emissions from exhaust, use palladium, rhodium, cerium, and/or platinum.

in addition, oil refining uses rare earths, such as lanthanum (and critical elements such as cobalt.)

But what about the auto manufacturing process: electricity from coal, etc?

Unlike traditional auto factories, many electric vehicle auto makers are currently in the process of transforming their factories to use only green energy and green electricity. (eg: VW, BMW, Tesla) According to an EECA study, total emissions from production and destruction of light passenger vehicles (not counting the life of the vehicle) is 20% less for battery electric vehicles (BEV) over internal combustion engine vehicles, world wide. That's a worthwhile saving.

Critical Resource Reserves

According to OPEC, at the end of 2018 there was a worldwide reserve of just under 1,500 billion barrels of crude oil. According to Statista.com, the world consumption rate of crude oil is 36,719 million barrels per year (2019 projection.) This equates to about 40 years of crude oil (oil & gas hydrocarbons) left in reserves.

In comparison, according to USGS*, there were 13,919 million metric tons of lithium reserves at the end of 2018. By 2025, estimated predictions are that we'll be consuming 422,614 metric tons of lithium-carbonate-equivalent annually (up from 212,719 tons in 2016.) Even if we ended up using twice as much as those predictions, we'd still have plenty of reserves. However, despite the reserves, production is not keeping up with demand, according to some (unsourced) publications.

*USGS: United States Geological Survey government department.

OPEC: The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, an intergovernmental organisation of 14 nations

Statista.com: a German online portal for statistics, which collates data derived from market and opinion research institutes, the economic sector, and official international governmental statistics

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Do we have enough Rare Earth Metals for EVs?

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It's important to distinguish between: 'rare-', 'precious-', and 'critical-' earth elements. The terms are not interchangeable, but unfortunately often are in popular media. It's also important to distinguish between 'reserves' and 'resources'. Reserves denote the amountthat can be technically recovered at a cost that is financially feasible at the present price.

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Great article on

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Journalists test drive the Nissan Ariya in Stockholm.
Nissan/Sebastien Mauroy

"Almost all of the [electric car] batteries we've ever made are still in cars," said Nissan executive Nic Thomas.

"And we've been selling electric cars for 12 years," he added.

The worry was once what the world would do with millions of spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries after they no longer powered the cars and vans they propelled. But this glut of EV batteries has not yet materialized-Nissan has been making the electric Leaf since 2010-and automotive industry initiatives to recycle the lithium-ion cells bundled in EV batteries are slow to go mainstream in Europe and the U.S.

Electric cars have sophisticated battery management systems that guard the long-term health of their batteries. Most manufacturers offer battery warranties of seven or eight years or around 100,000 miles of driving, but there's an industry expectation that EV batteries will last longer than that; they should outlive the cars themselves.

EV batteries consist of more than 2,000 individual lithium-ion cells working together. Battery management systems, or BMS, allow the cells to be gently topped up, preserving efficiency and life; EV lithium-ion batteries live much longer than lithium-ion phone or laptop batteries which sport less sophisticated BMS.

"We haven't got a great big stock of batteries that we can convert into something else," stressed Thomas, who is the U.K. marketing director for and who recently moved back to his home country after working in Japan, where he led Nissan's global EV business.

Nic Thomas, U.K. marketing director for Nissan, speaking at a press launch for the Ariya electric ... [+]
Nissan

"It's the complete opposite of what people feared when we first launched EVs-that the batteries would only last a short time," he reflected.

It's clear that most EV batteries will outlast the vehicles they were installed in, and even then, they have a worthwhile second life before they need to be stripped down for recycling.

"At the end of the vehicle's life-15 or 20 years down the road-you take the battery out of the car, and it's still healthy, with perhaps 60 or 70% of usable charge," said Thomas.

"Taking the battery out [of an electric car] and putting a new battery in is not a viable proposition. It's more sustainable to take the battery pack out of the car after 20 years, recycle the car, and reuse the battery."

Nissan has collected only a relatively small number of Leaf batteries-from crashed vehicles or after warranty issues-and supplied some to provide backup power to the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam, home to Ajax Football Club. The arena's roof has 4,200 solar panels, with the resulting electricity stored in the equivalent of 148 Nissan Leaf batteries.

Other Leaf batteries will be dismantled and reused in consumer-level portable energy storage packs "when we've got some batteries to go into them," said Thomas.

"But by far the easiest thing to do take the complete battery out of the vehicle, put it in a shipping container in a rack and plug that into a solar farm."

Nissan employees make final checks to cars on the production line at Nissan's plant in Sunderland, ... [+]
AFP via Getty Images

Such reuse is now commonplace in Japan, and it's ramping up in the U.K. Thomas said that Nissan's new billion-dollar gigawatt factory rising from the ground at its Sunderland plant will use EV batteries to store energy from solar panels and three wind turbines.

"The building will use a mixture of new and used batteries, and we'll keep adding used batteries as they come available," he said, stressing that Nissan doesn't own the batteries in its customers' cars.

"[The batteries] don't belong to us; we need to support our customers finding the right things to do with them."

Thomas was speaking at the Stockholm launch of the Japan-built Ariya electric crossover. More premium than a Leaf, the Ariya was road tested by journalists on sinuous Swedish roads .

A Volkswagen employee presents a layer after further processing the anode of battery test pouches at ... [+]
Getty Images

And if Leaf batteries are few and far between, it will be many years before semi-spent Ariya batteries are added to the company's stockpile for reuse or recycling.

Battery tech

EV batteries consist of those two thousand or more cells bundled in modules and wired into battery packs sandwiched in a protective metal casing. These electrochemical power packs can weigh a thousand pounds or more.

Lithium-ion batteries are expensive to manufacture, partly due to the high cost of cobalt, mainly mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Cobalt extraction is the largest source of DRC's export income, and the country accounted for more than two-thirds of global cobalt production in 2021.

While some carmakers have started building cobalt-free batteries-many Tesla batteries now rely instead on lithium phosphate-the demand for the hard, lustrous gray material is only likely to increase. The same is true for lithium, nickel, and other materials inside these batteries, which are mined in Russia, Indonesia, and other places where environmental oversight is often poor, labor standards are often lax, and where mining companies have been known to fuel conflicts with local communities. (You've heard of "blood diamonds"? There's also "blood cobalt.")

Reclaiming cobalt and more through recycling makes ethical and environmental sense, but the financial case is often poor. The retrieved raw material-reclaimed through a hydro-metallurgical process that produces salts or metallic hydroxides which can be used as precursors-doesn't always even pay for the labor involved, which includes collection, transport, battery chemistry sorting, shredding, separation of metallic and non-metallic materials, neutralizing hazardous substances, smelting, and then purification.

It's impossible to compile accurate figures for what percentage of lithium-ion batteries are currently recycled, but the value usually quoted is about 5%.

The sector might be small, but it has vast potential for growth.

"There is already a very strong recycling industry for batteries in China," said Thomas.

"I've visited lots of plants in some fairly far-flung parts of China where they grind the battery down to what they call black mass, which then enables them to extract all of the precious metals, starting with the lithium, but then moving on to the nickel and the cobalt."

In Salzgitter, Germany, Volkswagen recently opened an electric car battery research and production facility. This new SalzGiga facility will recycle EV batteries.

Recycling is also set to grow in the U.S. Redwood Materials, a battery recycler created by Tesla cofounder and former tech chief JB Straubel, recently raised more than $700 million from investors to expand its Carson City, Nevada, operations and build an additional processing facility on a 100-acre site it owns.

Redwood can already recapture usable quantities of metals at a cost lower than conventional mining, Straubel recently told Forbes.

Policy decisions

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that the world currently has enough capacity to recycle 180,000 metric tons of spent EV batteries annually. This is nowhere near enough: recycling experts estimate that the EVs bought in 2019 alone will eventually generate 500,000 metric tons of battery waste. By 2040, there could be 1,300-gigawatt hours' worth of spent batteries in need of recycling, warns the IEA.

Given the often poor economic case for recycling, it's clear there need to be national and international policies to mandate EV battery recycling. Academics from the Faraday Institution's Reuse and Recycling of Lithium Ion Batteries (ReLib) project at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. are working to identify the policies and regulations that would create the economic conditions required to optimize the reuse and recycling of EV batteries. These policies include standards around battery design that would allow recyclers to take them apart more easily, battery take-back programs, and strict laws against landfilling with EV batteries.

The European Union already regulates EV battery disposal under an "extended producer responsibility" scheme and is set to update its regulations to set specific targets for minerals recovery.

Meanwhile, automotive companies are working hard on improving battery efficiencies. Nissan is hoping to equip its cars with "all-solid-state batteries (ASSB)" by 2028 and could open a plant next year in Japan making the new technology. Solid-state batteries promise to charge faster, hold more power, and could last longer than lithium-ion batteries.

In time, however, they too will need to be repurposed and then recycled.

"I'll be very old and very retired by the time we actually need to do a lot of these things," joked Thomas but, given the worldwide uptake of EVs is set to accelerate, reuse and recycling of EV batteries will soon become the norm.

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Electric Car Batteries Lasting Longer Than Predicted Delays Recycling Programs

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"Almost all of the [electric car] batteries we've ever made are still in cars," said Nissan executive Nic Thomas. "And we've been selling electric cars for 12 years," he added. The worry was once what the world would do with millions of spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries after they no longer powered the cars and vans they propelled.

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For question #4.

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As gas prices surge, thoughts increasingly turn to going without it and buying electric alternatives instead. But is the grid ready to handle that challenge?

MUSKEGON, Mich. - Michigan's public utilities estimate there will be between one and two million EVs statewide by 2030.

And as gas prices surge, thoughts increasingly turn to going without it and buying electric alternatives instead.

Is the grid ready to handle that challenge?

The 13 ON YOUR SIDE Verify Team turned to the experts.
"Are energy companies and the grid ready to power a growing number of electric vehicles?" Yes. While the electric grid wouldn't be able to handle the strain of hundreds of millions of new EVs on the road all at once, according to experts, projects in the pipeline and the current pace of EV adoption will mean utilities will likely be able to keep pace with future energy demands.
"The short answer is yes," Commissioner Tremaine Phillips of the Michigan Public Service Commission relayed. "We are being presented with a number of challenges... It would be a fairly scary scenario, if all ICE vehicles were to convert to electric vehicles overnight."

In 2021, American utilities produced just over 1,100 terawatts of electricity for the grid.

What that means is if manufacturers replaced all just under 300 million ICE vehicles registered in the US with electrics right now and all of them charged at once, at 50 KW, it would exhaust US capacity by about 12 to one.

At least, that's the theory.

"That's not the reality that we face," Phillips said.

Experts say math makes the mistake of suggesting the transition would happen all at once and that everyone would, for some reason, plug-in together.

A breakdown put out by Forbes offers a reality check: again, assuming every vehicle were electric and used an average of about 3,900 kWh a year, they would exhaust only about a fourth of the country's capacity over the same time period.

DTE and Consumers Energy seemed agreed with that assessment; for the time being, at least, there's enough to go around.

"Most charging for electric vehicles will take place overnight," Brian Wheeler, a spokesperson for Consumers Energy said. "That's really important, because overnight is the time that you can imagine in your own home or your business, overnight is where the electric grid is much quieter... ready and waiting to accommodate that growth."

Even so, over time, all of those cars plugging in will entail more demand, which, in turn, will mean more electricity, by some estimates, around 25 percent more.

Experts suggest the transition will ultimately mean about $125 billion in upgrades by 2030.

Michigan's utilities have said they're up to the task.

"The energy that powers those cars will be clean and, at the same time, we're going to be building out enough solar to meet any increase in overall demand," Wheeler said.

"This is not a false start any longer," Phillips suggested. "The future is going to be electric, so we need to begin to plan today for 2030 and beyond... given that mutual opportunity there, I truly believe that we're going to be able to get what needs to be done."

► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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VERIFY: Can the power grid handle the EV revolution?

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As gas prices surge, thoughts increasingly turn to going without it and buying electric alternatives instead. But is the grid ready to handle that challenge? MUSKEGON, Mich. - Michigan's public utilities estimate there will be between one and two million EVs statewide by 2030.

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A biased viewpoint from a car maker.

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Are electric cars dangerous? | Kia British Dominica

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Electric vehicle batteries are mounted on electric vehicles after passing severe safety verification tests such as crash test, watertight test, immersion test, and combustion test, and deemed safe thanks to its design, which protects the battery from physical shock.

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Tesla faces pushback for quiet cars...

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Tesla Recalls 579,000 Cars That Can Be Too Quiet - Kelley Blue Book

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Tesla has issued a recall order for about 579,000 cars - some of every model it builds - over a problem with the sounds they make. Electric vehicles are nearly silent. People are used to hearing cars approach. This can create a safety risk, as pedestrians, cyclists, and other drivers might not hear an electric car.

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Interesting article...

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Batteries are heavy. That's why, generally, electric cars weigh considerably more than otherwise similar gasoline-powered vehicles. Take the GMC Hummer EV, for instance. The Edition 1 version, which has lots of batteries for additional driving range and power, weighs over 9,000 pounds. That's roughly three times the weight of a Honda Civic.

That has important implications for safety, but it's more complicated than the traditional thinking that revolves around issues of mass and speed.

In terms of crash safety, that extra weight actually helps people inside electric vehicles. Insurance claim statistics show that people in electric vehicles are less likely to be injured in a crash than people in otherwise similar gas-powered vehicles.

This could be attributed to the fact that electric vehicles aren't carrying a large metal engine under the hood, so they have more empty space that can cushion occupants. But the same injury claims trends hold true for hybrid vehicles, said Insurance Institute for Highway Safety spokesman Joe Young. Hybrids also have added weight from batteries as well as an engine under the hood. So the difference seems largely attributable to sheer mass.

But that extra weight can be bad news for people who get hit by electric vehicles, as the added impact force gets transferred to the other, lighter vehicle.

Why heavier is better - but only for those inside

It's a matter of simple physics. When two moving objects hit one another, the heavier one will tend to carry on in more or less the direction it was going. The lighter one, on the other hand, will change direction abruptly. Even if that lighter vehicle doesn't get smashed in, that jarring deflection is bad for the people inside. Meanwhile, for the people in the heavier vehicle that just punches its way through, that extra weight can be a lifesaver.

Other electric vehicles also weigh more than similar gasoline-powered models. The Ford F-150 Lightning will weigh about 1,600 pounds more than a similar gas-powered F-150 truck. Similarly, the electric Volvo XC40 Recharge weighs about 1,000 pounds more than a gas-powered Volvo XC40.

The GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 has the longest driving range and the most power of any version of that truck, and long range and big power mean a lot of heavy batteries. Those heavy batteries, plus heavy-duty off-road parts, are the reason it weighs so much, General Motors spokesman Mikhael Farah said.

In developing the Hummer EV, a lot of thought went into minimizing the chances of a crash for the sake of both the Hummer's occupants and others on the road, Farah said. For instance, a variety of collision avoidance technologies, such as lane keeping assistance and pedestrian detection, which are available on many modern vehicles, will be standard equipment on the Hummer EV, which will have a starting price of around $80,000.

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Why electric cars are so much heavier than regular cars | CNN Business

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Batteries are heavy. That's why, generally, electric cars weigh considerably more than otherwise similar gasoline-powered vehicles. Take the GMC Hummer EV, for instance. The Edition 1 version, which has lots of batteries for additional driving range and power, weighs over 9,000 pounds. That's roughly three times the weight of a Honda Civic.

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Awesome opinion piece, make sure to do your own research on this!

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7 Reasons Why Electric Vehicles Wont Replace Gas Cars - Automotive For Beginners

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Posted on Tags can electric cars replace gas, should electric cars replace gas cars, what happens when we run out of oil, what will happen when oil runs out, when will electric cars replace gas, when will oil run out, when will the world run out of oil, when will we run out of oil, will electric cars replace gas, will electric cars replace gas cars

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See how some states are recovering from not getting gasoline taxes.

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More States Hitting Electric Vehicle Owners With High Fees, a Consumer Reports Analysis Shows

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A Consumer Reports analysis shows that some states are charging electric vehicle owners fees far in excess of what average motorists pay in gas taxes, potentially discouraging an important environmentally friendly technology.

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Interesting contrast.

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With interest and demand for electric vehicles on the rise, MoneyGeek looked at insurance premiums - along with their combustion equivalents, when applicable - to find out how much more electric vehicle owners pay for auto insurance. Of the electric vehicles MoneyGeek used in its study, annual insurance premiums ranged from slightly over $1,300 to over $3,500.

Which Electric Vehicles Are the Most Expensive to Insure?

Topping the list as the most expensive electric vehicle to insure is the 2021 Porsche Taycan at $3,567. That's 1.5 times more than the $1,424 average annual cost of car insurance. The next three highest electric vehicle insurance rates are all 2021 Tesla models: the Tesla Model Y for $1,901, the Tesla Model X for $2,885 and the Tesla Model S for $3,022.

At the lower end of insurance costs is the electric Hyundai Kona. The typical yearly insurance premium for this vehicle is $1,339 - just under the national average. However, these rates still don't beat the popular, gas-powered Honda Accord, which costs $1,234 annually to insure. Even lower in costs is another combustion favorite - the Toyota Camry - which costs $1,267 to insure per year.

Most Expensive Electric Vehicles to Insure

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*2021 insurance data not available.

Teslas Cost More to Cover Than the Majority of Electric Vehicles

Teslas are amongst the most expensive electric vehicles to insure. MoneyGeek's review of 17 EV models found that 3 of the 5 electric cars with the highest insurance costs were the Teslas - specifically, the Tesla Model Y, the Tesla Model X and the Tesla Model S.

Generally, the more your car costs, the more expensive it is to insure - this is part of why Tesla premiums are higher-than-average. Another reason insurance is so costly for Teslas is that repair and maintenance costs tend to be much higher than most vehicles'.

A 2015 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reported that the Tesla Model S had higher claim frequencies, claim severities and overall losses than comparable large luxury cars.

The higher claim severity was thought to be attributed to the car's battery replacement cost - a whopping $16,000. Kelley Blue Book reports that a battery replacement for the average vehicle runs between $45 to $250.

Insurance costs for Teslas are significantly higher than most other vehicles in their combustion categories. View the graph below to see how the insurance costs of each Tesla model compare to other cars in the same category.

Why Do Electric Vehicles Cost More to Insure?

Car insurance costs for electric vehicles tend to be much higher than combustion vehicles. But why are premiums so much higher for these cars?

In general, insurance for electric vehicles isn't based on the same principle as traditional cars, explains Miranda Yan, the co-founder of VinPit, a car data company that helps users run searches about vehicle information or history.

According to her, there are a few key reasons why electric vehicles tend to cost more to insure:

Comparable Make Model Analysis

On average, electric vehicles have significantly higher insurance costs than gas-powered cars. This difference is most apparent when you compare the insurance costs of electric vehicles and their combustion counterparts. MoneyGeek found that, on average, insurance for electric cars tends to cost 15% more than it does for a comparable combustion model.

Electric Vehicle Insurance Cost Compared to Combustion Counterparts

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MoneyGeek also found that the Fair Price for a model's electric version is 50% higher than its gas-powered equivalent. The table below shows the relationship between a vehicle's purchase price and insurance premiums and demonstrates how much higher insurance costs are for electric cars.

Which Insurers Offer the Best Rates on Electric Vehicles?

Although insurance rates for EVs are often higher, many providers still offer competitive car insurance rates.

MoneyGeek's review of 17 electric vehicle models showed that USAA offers the lowest rates across the board for an annual premium. However, keep in mind that this company only serves current military members, veterans and their families. The next most affordable provider is State Farm, followed by Progressive.

To find the cheapest car insurance, be sure to compare rates from several providers. Rates can vary by location and other factors like your unique driving record. Also, different insurers charge different rates for specific car models.

Insurance discounts can lower the cost of your annual premium. While the savings offered by each insurer can vary, most companies have bundling, safe driving and good student discounts that make it more affordable for many drivers. MoneyGeek recommends finding all available discounts a provider has and comparing quotes with other insurance companies to find the best rate.

Average Electric Vehicle Insurance Costs By Company

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Can Electric Vehicles Help You Save In Other Ways?

While insurance costs may be more expensive, owning an EV may save you money in some ways that conventional cars can't.

Electricity costs less than gas. In many cases, it's cheaper to charge an EV than it is to fill a standard vehicle. However, electric utility costs are different from state to state. Battery capacity and battery size also vary, as can gasoline prices by state and miles-per-gallon (mpg) of gas-powered automobiles - these factors can all affect how affordable it is to run an electric vehicle compared to a combustion car.

EVs have lower maintenance costs. Because EVs operate on a single component - the electric motor - they don't have as many mechanical parts as gas-powered cars. That means less periodic maintenance services are required. Maintenance for EVs is estimated to cost $330 less than gas-powered vehicles on average annually.

You may qualify for government stimulus packages. There are many incentives for EV drivers on the state and federal level. Some of the perks can include:

A federal tax credit for plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) with certain terms

Tax credits and purchase rebates

Emission testing exemptions

Reduced utility charges or rebates for charging EVs

High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane access

Legislative support for EV purchases or mandated fleet requirements

Reduced licensing, registration or road use fees - although other states charge EVs additional fees

EVs are better for the environment. Emissions from the life cycles of EV batteries are typically less than an internal combustion engine vehicle. However, it's important to also consider the way the electricity used to power an EV was generated, as these sources of electricity can also cause emissions. Fortunately, emissions from electricity generation are decreasing in some areas. They've fallen 38% since 1990 in the UK, according to an analysis by Carbon Brief. This decline has been largely attributed to a cleaner electricity mix based on gas and renewables instead of coal.

There are many factors to consider when weighing the benefits of an electric vehicle. The high insurance costs and purchase prices of some EVs may be unappealing to some drivers. However, different factors may be more important to others - like potential savings that can come with long-term ownership, such as fewer trips to the mechanic, reduced gas costs, government incentives and a lower carbon footprint.

For this analysis, MoneyGeek collected data from Quadrant Information Services, Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds.com. We analyzed insurance premiums for various make, model and vehicle year combinations from national insurance providers in locations across the country.

The average driver profile is based on the following persona:

40-year-old male

Clean driving record

Comprehensive and collision coverage of 100/300/100 with a $1,000 deductible

12k miles driven annually

The comprehensive and collision selection provides coverage of $100,000 bodily injury liability per person, $300,000 bodily injury liability per accident and $100,000 property damage liability.

About the Author

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How Much More Do Electric Vehicle Owners Pay For Insurance?

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With interest and demand for electric vehicles on the rise, MoneyGeek looked at insurance premiums - along with their combustion equivalents, when applicable - to find out how much more electric vehicle owners pay for auto insurance. Of the electric vehicles MoneyGeek used in its study, annual insurance premiums ranged from slightly over $1,300 to over $3,500.