The Cheapest Cars to Insure, According to Clark Howard

On a recent episode of The Clark Howard Podcast, John from North Carolina asked which cars are cheapest to insure. Clark Howard pointed out that it typically costs more to insure electric vehicles.

“You just barely press the accelerator and you feel like, if you’ve never ridden in one, you feel like you’re in a rocket,” he said. That sensation, he argued, is why EV owners file more claims and pay more to insure their cars.

So if you buy a $55,000 EV, and the premium comes in 30% or 40% higher than a comparably priced gas SUV, that gap compounds over six or seven years of ownership. It can erase the fuel savings that got you into the EV in the first place.

Auto insurance pricing is built on loss history by vehicle, ZIP code, and driver. The vehicle variable is largely a proxy for who buys it and how they drive it. As Howard put it, “the vehicles themselves that have the lowest insurance costs tend to be the lowest not because of how that particular vehicle is manufactured, but because the profile of the typical buyer of those vehicles gives them a historical record of having a much better claims experience, much lower costs for the insurers.”

Two things drive an insurance premium: frequency (how often claims are filed) and severity (how expensive each claim is to fix). EVs run hot on both.

On frequency, instant torque changes driver behavior in ways that show up in rear-end collisions and single-vehicle crashes. On severity, EV repairs are structurally more expensive. Battery packs integrated into the floor pan can be damaged in minor collisions. Hertz has been pivoting away from EVs specifically because of high repair costs, rapid depreciation, and low demand. If a rental giant underwriting thousands of vehicles is retreating on repair math, a personal auto insurer should take note.

A 38-year-old parent in Charlotte with a clean record insures a compact gas SUV for roughly $1,400 a year. Swap the vehicle for a comparably priced EV with the same coverage, driver, and ZIP code, and the premium frequently lands closer to $1,900 or $2,000. Over seven years, that is roughly $3,500 to $4,200 in additional premium, a meaningful chunk of the fuel savings the buyer modeled when choosing the EV.

Howard identifies compact SUVs as the category that consistently produces the lowest premiums, because “there’s something about the buyers of most compact SUVs, that people are not looking for horsepower. In other words, they’re not trying to drive fast.” He notes midsize SUVs and minivans also rank well, often driven by parents with young children.

What to do before you buy

1. Get real quotes on specific Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), not estimates. Call your insurer directly with two or three vehicles you are cross-shopping and ask for quotes on each.
2. Use the resources recommended by Clark. He pointed to Autoblog’s recent list of cheapest-to-insure vehicles and Consumer Reports for specific models.
3. Model total cost of ownership, not sticker price. Add seven years of projected premium to the purchase price before comparing a gas SUV against an EV. Fuel savings often look smaller once insurance is in the equation.
4. If you buy the EV anyway, consider raising your deductible. Moving from a $500 to $1,000 deductible typically trims the premium and partially offsets the EV surcharge, assuming you have emergency savings to self-insure the first $1,000 of a claim.