There are three reasons to get insurance - to cover yourself, to insure your ebike or escooter from theft or damage, and to protect others. Insuring electric bikes is easy - there are lots of places to do it. With electric scooters, it's much harder as they aren't yet road legal. Jump to Insuring your electric scooter.
Insurance isn't REQUIRED for electric scooters or bikes (although this may change for escooters if the law is relaxed to allow them on public roads). It is advisable though.
How much is electric bike insurance?
Insuring an electric bike is pretty simple. There are specialist firms like Cycleguard and Cycpleplan, standard insurers like Directline, and you can use price comparison websites as well.
If you want a good deal on electric bike insurance, we recommend Laka - see our explanation of its insurance here (including a discount code for a free 30 days' cover) .
To get a clue as to the range of prices, we got premium costs for a £1,200 estarli ebike stored in a wooden garden shed from a range of places and used for leisure only in the UK. We used a London address - premiums elsewhere should be no higher. We assumed we had no accessories, always obeyed the law(!), and always locked our bike up securely.
With electric bikes, the standard insurance is for theft and accidental damage to the bike. You can then opt to include covering injury (or death) to yourself and injury to others or their property. For theft cover, you'll need to lock it up and make sure to check the lock requirements - we recommend the LiteLok Core Plus.
It's worth noting that your home insurance is unlikely to cover an ebike due to their costs - but it is worth checking first (and even if it does, it may only cover the bike at home).
Typical ebike insurance premium costs
Cycleplan quoted us £56.41 including public liability cover with a £19.61 (35%) introductory discount - so a year later the price will rise to around £75. They are a highly-rated company (Trustpilot 4.5-star rating and 4.81 at Smart money people). Adding personal accident put the cost up by £7. Get a quote from cycleplan.
With Direct Line, getting insurance was tricky though - they didn't recognise the Estarli or Cowboy brands. But they did allow us to insure a Carrera Vengeance E Mens bike. Cover was £82.80 - with another £15 each to add public liability and personal injury.
Cycleguard was much easier as they didn't ask the make of the electric bike. They quoted £100.11 for an annual policy with an extra £26 for personal injury and £16 for public liability.
Gocompare's website said it offered electric bike insurance but didn't work.
We also tried Moneysupermarket.com who gave us 32 quotes (shown in the graph) ranging from £50.99 a year to £116.02. All the quotes above £75 included one or both of public liability and personal insurance cover (the eight cheapest quotes up to £68 did not).
After all that, we reckon you should get a quote from cycleplan as their combination of cover and premiums was best - plus we didn't have any problems with brand selection.
Electric bike regulations
In general, your cover will only be valid if your bike follows the EAPC regulations:
- It must have pedals capable of propelling the bike.
- A maximum power of 250W or less
- And a maximum speed of 15.5mph with power assistance
It's legal to ride an electric bike in the UK. Here's where to buy an ebike in the UK.
How much is electric scooter insurance?
Google electric scooter insurance and there's not much to be found - this is because many insurers aren't offering cover yet, as privately owned escooters aren't road legal. There are several companies who look like they offer cover ... but when you fill out your details, they say they'll ring you the moment they start to sell policies.
Typical premium costs
This is a problem as your existing home insurance is unlikely to cover the theft of an escooter. We did find one company offering cover. The main factor affecting costs is the price of the escooter:
- Cycleplan quoted us £47.38 to cover an £800 scooter - that price includes an introductory discount of £14.74 (so it will be more in the second year) and includes insurance tax. It's for a London home address.
- When we put the cover up to £1,200, the price rose to £68.57 (still with the discount).
This is what was covered:
- Up to £30,000 of theft and accidental damage insurance if your escooter is stolen while you (or an immediate family member who permanently lives with you) are using it (and using it legally if away from your home).
- Injury (or death) to yourself under personal-accident cover.
- Injury to others and property damage. The standard cover is £5 million in public liability cover in case you are sued. You can choose what level of public liability cover you have. Adding another £1m cover adds about £8 to the premium.
What escooter insurance covers
Make sure you read the restrictions though as they cover where you can use your scooter AND how powerful it is:
"It is currently against the law in the UK to ride e-scooters on public land including parks, pavements, footpaths and roads. You will only be covered by this policy when using your e-scooter on private land with the landowners permission. In addition, the e-scooter's electric motor output must not exceed 250w/15.5mph."
Cycle plan are a reputable company with a 4.5-star rating at trust pilot and 4.81 at Smart money people. Get a quote from cycleplan.
