The Electric: The Nightmare Cost of Repairing Your Wrecked EV

When considering an electric vehicle, a motorist will typically focus on its looks, how fast it accelerates and how far the vehicle will go on a charge. What the motorist will almost certainly not contemplate: the average of 58 days they will have to wait for repairs should they wreck that brand-spanking-new car, and the average $6,587 it will cost to fix it, according to auto insurance processing company CCC Intelligent Solutions.

When everything goes right, EVs can be cheaper to drive and own than conventional cars. But when things go wrong, they can go really wrong, says CCC Chief Strategy Officer Marc Fredman. EV motors and drive trains have many fewer moving parts than combustion vehicles, reducing maintenance costs, Fredman told me. But replacing bumpers, fenders, doors and side panels following a collision can be more expensive because in an EV they are more likely to be embedded with sensors, cameras and other electronics costing from hundreds to thousands of dollars each. Those sensors also are likely to require expensive recalibration. And labor charges for EVs are 50% higher, CCC said in a report.