The hidden costs of owning electric cars

electric vehicles All the Rage very popular here in the valley California has a law requiring electric only car sales by 2035 so about 10 years away those EVS are well known for saving money on gas but ad's now investigator Kyle Payne here with more on some hidden cost Kyle kirston David we spoke with more than a few Tesla owners and by and large they love their cars so much so a lot of them might not realize how much it's actually costing them I'm a fan a huge fan Craig MO is a huge fan of his Tesla all four of them actually the owner of a collision repair shop in California Mo stopped at the Premium Outlets downtown for lunch and to fill up his electric sedan with enough juice to get him through another 400 miles or so and he can't say enough good things about it there's no maintenance there's no oil changes no fan belts no filters no uh smog no exhaust I mean you just drive them it's like a glorified golf cart but even though Mo loves his glorified golf carts and says he has no problem ensuring his Teslas through State Farm his experience might not be the norm the 8 news now investigators asked Carl cook of cook Insurance Group in Las Vegas to run some numbers and as cook predicted when we sat down together in his office the Tesla insurance is far more expensive than other top automakers can you tell me something that the insurance people have said to you that does not bode well for the Tesla owner yeah it's going to be expensive to insure at our request cook quoted insurance rates for a number of popular vehicles on the road today and at $747 for the year the 2023 Tesla Model X is $1,100 more expensive than number two on his list the 2023 Ford Escape but two other popular sedans at the bottom of the list are thousands less both pricing out at just over 4,400 bucks some insurers won't even look at electric vehicles without requiring pre-approval or a 2 weeks waiting period beforehand cook says it's for good reason and a lot of folks in the market for an electric vehicle like a Tesla might not have done the math on these hidden costs the hidden cost with owning any EV would be that of insurance repairs and God forbid there's any damage and in this town you're going to have some damage cook says that damage on an electric vehicle can be considerably more substantial because of all the computers and sensors bells and whistles in on and around the entire car that don't exist on your father's oldmobile and while some garages will fix your EV a lot won't or can't and Tesla is itself only has one official shop here in Las Vegas cook says some of the big insurance companies won't even write policies for cars like Tesla basically a luxury car that is very easy to Total because of the cost to fix one it's not just like if a if a frame is bent that okay we can't replace it the car's got to be totaled in this particular case there's a lot of liability on the insurance companies still data from this digital Insurance Agency in shufi says half of all car buyers are considering an electric vehicle which which is up from 38% in 2023 with 33 new EVS launched last year and 50 new or updated EVS slated to enter the US Marketplace this year but even insurify who makes a commission on insurance policies bought through its website acknowledges some hurdles in buying an electric vehicle saying dealers aren't prepared to stock their showrooms with them it costs a lot just to replace a battery that the cars themselves cost a pretty penny and even though most of the folks we spoke with around town and of the charging stations love their Teslas and the Uber drivers say they save hundreds of dollars a week on gas the insurance agent Carl cook is having none of it I'm not sure I'd let my son drive at Tesla I mean he's a great driver I love him to death but even a rinky ding accident in a high school parking lot you're talking a lot of money to get that replaced and that would not be the case if he was driving um um an older car no no if you're driving that old truck you're driving that old truck the danger is probably on the other person that other person like Tesla owner Craig Mo who loves everything about his electric vehicles what's your favorite part of actually driving it the performance is insane really yeah the new one the new Tesla plaid that I have is 0 to 60 in 1.9 seconds you ever make that happen yeah recent data on the tires on Teslas show they wear out faster than the average vehicle about 20% faster part of the reason is they go so fast so quickly the torque takes its toll and Teslas are actually heavier than other cars interesting stuff Kyle well we also did some checking on that $7,500 tax break when you buy an electric vehicle turns out the buy Administration passed some legislation actually making it harder to get that credit and since then only a handful of drivers actually qualify

Channel: 8 News Now — Las Vegas

Views: 732,201

Keywords: video, I-Team, news

Id: T7fGDw7U2Wg

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024