EV Insurance

[watt-a-mezz]

Hi All. Had to take a break from my project, as health issues kind of got
in the way. Just recently started working on the 88 nissan again, and was wondering if anyone knew of a legit insurance company that will insure
homebuilt ev's. I called my insurance co, and even though we have been
with them since the 90's they couldn't tell me anything. Any thoughts? Thanks, Watt

[Ryland]

It's old enough that you might want to get hobbyist plates for it, then anyone who insures hotrods should insure it, My electric car is factory and I had trouble, I got Progressive to insure it but the first agent that I talked to told me that they did not insure electric cars at all, ever, so it can help to go to the source with your questions.

[watt-a-mezz]

Hi Ryland. Good suggestion. I keep forgetting how old that truck is. Are
hobbyist plates the same as historical (or in my case hysterical)plates?
I did some checking on line, and Geico would sell me liability for 30.00@mo.
I want to make it legal and I may be reimbursed for the electric parts if anything really bad happens. I will keep looking. Take care Watt

[Ryland]

antique, collector and historical plates are for vehicles that are stock, that are being preserved or restored, and are 20 or 25+ years old, depending on your state, hobbyist plates tend to be for non stock vehicles that are in that 20 or 25+ year old category that you have either put other drive trains in, modified the look of them outside of the stock look or the best example is a kit car that is based off one vehicle but looks like something else, home built vehicles often fall in this category as well, but if you go to alot of car shows you will see alot of hot rods with hobbyist plates.

[Phantom]

The antique plates usually have a limit of how many miles you can put on it on a year.

[paker]

Call State Farm. I talked to a rep and she said yes they do insure conversions.

[Automcdonough]

Look at it from the point of view "if this got totaled what would it cost to compensate?"

Those batteries aren't cheap, so you'd likely go the same route as someone who wants to make sure his turbo kit gets covered.. get the value adjusted in and be done with it.

Personally I go the same route as most people.. what they don't know won't hurt them.

[vpoppv]

With regards to EV insurance, I was in my State Farm office today. Now, there really is no way that I could afford a new Nissan Leaf, as much as I want one: if I could somehow figure out how to make the payments, there is no way I could afford insurance and registration. But, since I was in the office anyway, I asked how much it would cost. Not surprisingly, they don't have a listing for the Leaf, even though they have several 2011 models listed. So she just plunked in a $30,000 vehicle value to estimate the cost and told me it should be about $60 a month. Not too bad.....

[myzter]

what about electric bike insurance ?

[Ryland]

Electric bikes, if they have a 25mph or lower top speed then they are a bicycle in the US and are covered by your home owners, or renters insurance.
If you have a car that has been modified beyond stock and someone totals it you most likely will get a check for the base amount that your vehicle was worth, not a check that covers any of the modifications like an electric drive train, there is a spot on the form for most car insurance to add things that add to the value of your vehicle and that should be done.
Some insurance companies that insure hot rods and other modified vehicles will insure you for an "agreed" value and base what they charge you off that value and if it gets totaled they write you a check for that amount, they often require photos of your vehicle for their records or sometimes even require you to bring it to one of their appeasers to make sure that it is real and not already damaged, but if you have invested 1,000 hours of your time, or $10,000 in money in an electric car you might want to make sure that you have it insured if someone totals it.