While electric vehicles (EVs) are slated to receive separate insurance plans from July 1, the insurance rates for them would remain on par with, or only slightly higher than, those for gas-powered vehicles.
The Taiwanese EV market is dominated by Tesla Inc, with the best-selling models being the Model 3 and the Model Y, insurance companies said yesterday.
The total number of EVs still only make up less than 0.005 percent of all vehicles in Taiwan, while gas-powered cars make up about 94 percent and hybrids make up 5.5 percent, they added.
Photo: CNA
However, unlike conventional gas-powered vehicles, EVs are considered to be written off after any sort of collision, large or small, and the entire chassis must be swapped out, resulting in repair fees exceeding hundreds of thousands of New Taiwan dollars, the companies said.
Based on the principle of fairness, the government has introduced a new insurance plan for EVs, as this would prevent owners of gas-powered vehicles from footing the repair bills of electric vehicle owners.
However, the premium rates for EVs would not be 50 percent higher than those for gas-powered vehicles, as some insurance companies had predicted.
Using referential rates issued by the Taiwan Insurance Institute, the insurance companies’ calculations show that type A plans for EVs, or comprehensive insurance plans, would cost the same as the comprehensive plans for gas-powered vehicles, while type B and C plans would be 6.8 percent and 9 percent more expensive respectively.
Type B insurance plans cover everything that a type A plan would except for intentional damage by a third party, while type C plans only insure the driver for vehicle-on-vehicle collisions, the insurance companies said.
The owner of a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range would have to pay NT$46,000 a year at most, if they take out type A insurance, while the owner of a Luxgen N7 would have to pay NT$34,000 per year, they said, citing the referential rates.
People who have taken out a type A insurance plan would not see an increase in insurance fees on July 1.
Owners of a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range vehicle or a Tesla Model Y rear-wheel drive vehicle who have taken out a type B insurance plan would see a NT$3,000 increase in their fees on July 1, while owners of the Luxgen N7 would see a NT$3,300 increase.
People with a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range vehicle or a Tesla Model Y rear-wheel drive vehicle with type C insurance, would see an increase of NT$1,500, while Luxgen N7 owners would pay NT$1,000 more.
EV owners whose insurance policies are due next month or in August can maintain their current rates if they renew their policies by the end of this month, insurance companies said.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS