Insurance issues for electric cars

A potential barrier to the successful introduction of electric vehicles in the UK has emerged from one of the main organisations that sets resale values.

CAP Monitor says it will refuse to put a value on models where batteries are leased.

Battery leasing was seen as one way of making electric cars more affordable. It has been estimated that costly lithium-ion batteries could make some electric cars up to 50% dearer than the equivalent petrol or diesel model.

Yet CAP says the batteries must be bought with the car, otherwise there will be confusion over who owns what.

CAP believes it would be difficult to get insurance because of the split ownership, and difficult to sort out how much of any payout goes to who in the case of a write-off.