In the summer of this year, Admedia unveiled its Alternative Fuel Research, a project that provided thought-provoking insights into the electric and hybrid vehicle market. As part of the research process, we used our A3 Washroom Panels at Motorway Services to recruit hundreds of consumers who were willing to give their valued opinions about the alternative fuel models they either owned or were considering.

Subsequently, this pool of respondents has continued to grow and now numbers over 900 people. With this fantastic resource at our fingertips, we were able to create a new panel – the Electric Drive Panel – which sits beside our existing Drive Panel and enables us to explore the specific intricacies of the electric and hybrid car market in much greater detail.

This month was the turn of Insurance for electric vehicles. As a new market, there was very little existing information as to whether it differed substantially from the insurance market for non-electric vehicles. The Electric Drive Panel therefore allowed us to go to our respondents and uncover new insights.

For example, what we found was that there are certain EV-only features that are important to owners when they are buying a policy, such as being offered an electric-only hire car when their own EV is off the road.

We also discovered that EV owners are also more likely to actively shop around for better insurance deals than petrol/diesel owners, and are highly likely to switch providers in the next 12 months.

Finally, a huge 68% of them agree that advertising electric car insurance at Motorway Services is appropriate – Admedia has a wide range of formats at 136 locations with which to connect to the rapidly growing number of EV owners hitting roads around the country.

If you would like more information on the EV Insurance research, or the Electric Drive Panel in general, please enquire here.