How does car insurance work for an electric car in New Zealand?

Those levels are explained in our guides to comprehensive car insurance and third party car insurance. The trade-off between them is in comprehensive vs third party.

Tower's EV page names Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, BYD and Volkswagen as examples of brands it insures, and describes the list as various popular electric vehicles. It does not say every make and model is accepted. For a particular car, including a Tesla, the quote tool shows whether Tower will insure it and on what terms.

Whether any car insurance is required is covered in our guide to whether car insurance is compulsory.

Tower's car insurance page lists all three under one heading about cover for an EV, PHEV or hybrid. Neither page says the cover differs between them. A quote shows the terms for your car.

Item	Comprehensive	Third party, fire and theft	Third party only
Battery damaged in a sudden and accidental event, fire or theft	Covered, per Tower's EV page	Limited cover, per Tower's EV page	Not an own-car cover level
Standard charging pack and cables sold with the car when new, damaged in a sudden and accidental event, fire or theft	Covered, per Tower's EV page	Limited cover, per Tower's EV page	Not an own-car cover level
Battery failure	Not covered	Not covered	Not covered
Wear and tear	Not covered	Not covered	Not covered

Source for every row: Tower's EV insurance page. The binding terms are in Tower's policy wording, which excludes mechanical failure unless it results from a loss Tower has accepted, as well as wear, tear and depreciation.

A battery cracked in a crash, burnt in a fire or taken in a theft is a claim. A battery that has lost range over the years, or stops working with no outside cause, is not. Tower's page notes that electric car batteries have a certain lifespan and can be expensive to replace. A warranty from the car's maker is separate and is not insurance.

Two limits are worth knowing. The cable cover applies only to the standard pack and cables sold with the car when new, and the page does not mention a cable bought later, so ask about it. "Limited cover" under third party, fire and theft is Tower's phrase and the page does not say what the limit is, so check the wording or ask before you choose that level.

If you rent or share a building, the page does not say who is responsible for a charger, so ask the owner and the insurer. Our section on house insurance explains how house cover is set up.

For a car above that price, the wording says to call Tower to arrange insurance before buying.

Tower's car page also says that if you insure a new car with it from new on comprehensive cover, it will replace the car with a new one if it becomes a total loss within the first two years, subject to availability. The wording adds that you must have owned the car from new (Tower's car insurance page, comprehensive wording). How a total loss is paid otherwise is in our guide to agreed value and market value.

Our guide to what sets the price of car insurance goes through the other factors. No one can tell you a price before the insurer has your details.

The page does not say whether a car that has run out of charge is attended, so read the RoadWise terms before assuming so. Our page on Tower roadside assistance goes through it.

Claim steps are the same as for any car, set out in our guide to car insurance claims. If you have added aftermarket parts, modified car insurance explains why they need to be declared.