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The Expert Podcast brings you firsthand narratives from experts across diverse industries, including private investigators, general contractors and builders, insurance agencies, vehicle specialists, lawyers, and many others.
…Well here we go We talked about this a few months ago where electric vehicles are now starting to see some pretty significant insurance claims There's an article from headline Well, where they talk about. Electric vehicles being totaled. And having to go to the junk yard because of some very very minor collision or collision damage Why is that? Why isn't electric vehicle. have to get totaled. Or junk because of a minor damage Well it's because of the way the cars engineer and here's what mean. The bag. pack. In an electric vehicle is a very very sensitive electronic. Piece of equipment. So an impact that doesn't even strike the battery pack can Jostle around enough to where it creates damage inside Think about when you drop your cell phone or. When a computer falls off a desk or something like that. The electronic components inside of that device could be damaged just from the impact of stopping quickly. It doesn't actually have to be crunched. By something striking it.
What is the other reason Well the biggest reason is in a gasoline vehicle that motor that engine is under the hood That's a ball of metal. That's under the hood You lifted up a hood you see that ball of metal. It doesn't extend throughout the whole car It's only in one place So unless a car is hit very hard in the nose where there's a lot of protection with that bumper. And on the sides protected by the tires. The engine on a gas vehicle is unlikely to be damaged in a minor collision. However on a battery vehicle and electric vehicle, the battery itself which is like the engine is the most expensive part of the car. Is a flat. Electronic device that extends all the way under the floor of the vehicle front to back side to side. So if you have a side impact that pushes in your rocker panel even by a couple inches and it breaches that battery, all bets are off, right. And according to a lot of insurance companies, they're being forced to write off electric vehicles with only minor damage because.
That battery is a lot more fragile It's a lot more sensitive… And it's easier to be destroyed And unlike the battery of a gasoline vehicle you can't go to Pepboys and buy a battery for a hundred bucks. That's a 20 or $30,000 piece of equipment. And sometimes it's worth more than the car. And according to the article that can be half the cost of electric vehicle. Sometimes tens of thousands of dollars making it more economical for insurance to kill. a car totaled. When you have to replace a battery pack… Even. So even if you do want to replace it some car makers. That when battery packs are available they're unwilling to. Give the information needed to repair it. Because…it's part of their, proprietary knowledge of the, electric vehicle…
If you throw away the vehicle at an early. you've lost all the advantage in terms of carbon emissions What does that mean? Well in order for a N E V electric vehicle to make sense for the environment, it has to be on the road for 10 or 15 years to offset the manufacturing costs or the manufacturing impact. So we're going to see more of this where these electric vehicles is EVs. Are more likely to be totaled or junked with a very minor impact Sometimes the impact may not even damage much of the body panels but if it's a severe vibration it goes over a bump. Maybe it goes over a curb the wrong way. the battery itself can be breached internally even without any external damage being visible.