LV= General Insurance (LV) will launch a “market-leading” roadside charging service for electric vehicles later this week.
The insurance company will initially launch 10 vans, in partnership with roadside EV charging assistance firm AFF, across England and Wales that can charge customer EVs that have run out of juice.
Equipped with a 7.2kW charging unit and 10m cabling, the vans can charge any battery EV for up to 30 minutes at the roadside. This provides an average of 10 miles of battery range, allowing customers to reach a nearby charging station.
LV’s product arrives in a growing market of roadside charging initiatives. Last year, RAC launched six Ford Transit Custom patrol vans equipped with a lightweight EV charging kits to help stranded motorists. Firms such as Sparkcharge are also tackling the problem with portable EV chargers, but the RAC service is LV’s closest competitor.
“We already cater for EV drivers who run out of charge by taking them to the nearest charge point,” said Tom Clarke, head of electric vehicle strategy at LV, “but this partnership with AFF means we can increase the level of support and value we provide to our customers.”
The charging service comes as part of LV’s EV-dedicated car insurance. This currently offers ‘out of charge recovery’ as standard on its EV insurance policy, where drivers whose EV runs out of charge at home or on the road can have it transported to the nearest charging station.
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Another hidden EV running cost
Despite EVs presumably being more reliable than ICE cars, thus less likely to need a breakdown service for a fault, I'm assuming this charging service, in addition to not being able to be towed if they do break down so need a flatbed, will command a hefty premium over ICE car policies?
And how much does it cost to insure an EV anyway? I'm assuming an EV that costs a lot more to buy than an equivalent ICE car and can accelerate from 0-60 in 5 or 6 seconds is going to be very expensive to insure? Or at least has enough excuses there for insurance companies to charge a lot for policies?
Please, please, please
Could someone start doing 'in-flight refuelling' of EVs on M-ways, where one of these charge vehicles pulls up alongside you and charges you whilst you're driving.
That'd be so good :-)
harf - Speed...
Look at the Stats harf. Delivers 20 miles per hour charge equivalent so doing 20mph would be neutral so you'd need to be doing 10mph for one hour connected to the van to get 10 miles charge......