Electric vehicles
Get ready to feel the love for electric vehicles
How to fall in love with EVs
Are you in love with the idea of owning an electric vehicle, but worried about the reality versus the fantasy?
From hunting for charging points to busting myths about driving an electric vehicle, we can help you learn more about EVs and help you find your perfect match.
The future of EVs
Electric vehicles are the future! But what does that actually mean? We talked to three experts to find out.
Ready to find your perfect EV match?
As with any commitment, it’s worth making sure you’ve got the facts before you take the plunge. Buying an electric vehicle is no different.
In this section, we can help you learn enough about EVs so you can make the right choice for your lifestyle and your budget.
Looking for a pre-loved electric vehicle?
New as they are, there is a flourishing second-hand market for electric vehicles. Get tips on how to find what you’re looking for.
Protecting your beloved EV
With Aviva Car Insurance, you get cover tailored to your electric vehicle. From taking care of your battery and charging accessories to coming to give you an emergency roadside boost if you run out of charge, we’ve got you.
Out of charge recovery
If your electric ride runs out of charge, an RAC mechanic will come out and either charge your battery to get you to a working charging point, or transport you, your vehicle and your passengers to a working charging point or your home. Whichever’s closer Footnote [1]
Accidental damage protection
We’ll be there for you if your car’s lost or damaged, including if it’s damaged by electrical surge while charging
Electric vehicle accessories covered
We cover accessories such as charging cables (in your vehicle and while in use), as well as wallbox chargers installed in your garage
Everything you need to know about insurance for your electric car
Find out what’s covered and what’s not, and what you can add to your car insurance.
Keeping your EV in tip-top shape
Running an EV comes with the same kind of commitment as a petrol or diesel car – you need to regularly show it some love. From keeping your battery topped up to getting it physically checked over by a qualified mechanic, we can help you discover more about how to love your EV.
Electric car battery basics
Petrol? Where we’re going, we don’t need petrol. Moving from petrol to electric could help save the planet, but what do you need to know?
Getting an MOT for your EV
You need to take care of your EV just like you do a petrol car. Here’s what you need to know.
Hear from other EV lovers
When you’re thinking about taking the leap, it’s good to hear what other people who have already gone there think. Listen to what EV owners really think about their electric vehicles and how they’ve slotted them into their lifestyles.
The views and opinions expressed in these videos are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Aviva.
Transcript for video The city-based electric driver
We originally bought it because the price of fuel was going up just too drastically.
For us, we don’t do a huge amount of long-distance driving, for the range that we’ve got which is 90 miles, that is plenty to go back and forth to work a few times, drive around the city to do your bits and bobs.
One of the things we had to take into consideration when buying an electric car is that we can’t install a home charger on our property because we rent, but fortunately we’ve got a granny charger for our car.
Essentially, it’s a three pin so I can plug it into a normal socket inside the house and it allows me to be able to charge from outside my window because we’ve got a driveway outside of our house, which actually saves a huge amount on our fuel.
Secondhand buying is an interesting experience, you definitely need to do your research online.
We spent countless hours just understanding the differences between all the vehicles. You get the option with electric cars that you can lease the battery from the retailer, which basically means that if anything goes wrong with your battery, they just change it out. So we pay a monthly fee, it depends on the level of miles you’re doing. Not too much of a price to pay.
Transcript for video Green-thinking Adriaan tells us why he drives electric
We’ve all got to make changes and everybody’s got to make a little difference.
When we bought the house we had solar panels put on to help bring the energy bills down and generate ten times more electricity than I’m using.
The next step is charge the electric car. I definitely save money. 50 kilowatts costs me 55 pence per kilowatt to charge if I want to fast charge it, but it’s definitely worthwhile charging it from home because you’re paying between 5 and 12 pence per kilowatt.
There’s two apps that I use; one is for the solar panels, the second one setting the car up to charge. Once it’s all set up, you just plug and play.
If you’re thinking of getting an electric vehicle, see if you can test drive one to see if it fits with your journey. Going back to petrol or diesel car or have an electric and a petrol or diesel. Because the electric is really nice to use for the shorter journeys, if suddenly I have to immediately get somewhere and the car isn’t charged, you just get in your other car.
Transcript for video The family road trippers
The electric car that we drive is extremely easy to drive, it’s a really lovely experience.
We’ve still got a lot of family in the midlands, so we go into Birmingham a lot.
The only thing that you have to do is you have to obviously plan your route and you have to know where the charging stations are.
A lot of these stations have got lots of good facilities.
When the cars charging the children aren’t going to get bored. You can go inside and get yourself a coffee, get something to eat.
I think they see it as a benefit because we would’ve travelled without any stops and obviously lots of the time children do want to stop. So I think it’s more of a benefit because they think, ‘oh great, mum and dad are going to stop now, because we’ve got an electric car we need to charge’.
One piece of critical advice I would give is to do your research on the car, the apps, the phones, where the chargers are, get yourself sorted out with your charger in your house.
Once you’ve done that, it’s ideal. I would never go back to a conventional diesel or petrol, because it’s so easy.
Plug it in, charge and you go.