By Andrew Ballard, product principle and Caroline Elliott-Grey, senior product manager, UK and Ireland, LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Yet, flood damage can be a major risk factor for vehicle damage. One insurance provider has suggested that 70% of flood-damaged cars are written off and 20% of all vehicle write-offs (including collisions and thefts) are caused by bad weather conditions.
Moreover, flooding and strong wind are the top two perpetrators of car damage .
Knowing that the UK is facing increasing weather-related risks, cars are expensive to buy and becoming more costly to repair, particularly in the case of electric vehicles (EVs). With that in mind, it makes sense that motor insurance underwriters are increasingly looking at geospatial intelligence data to better understand motor insurance risk related to perils such as flood, wind and fire. This is not just at point of quote but throughout the lifetime of the policy.
Adding another underwriting consideration to the mix is the increasing penetration of electric vehicles. Looking at Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data for May 2025, 21.8% of new cars registered were battery electric, a rise of 25.8% year on year . While the cost of purchasing an EV is coming down, the average cost to buy an electric car in the UK is still around £46,000, with EV prices ranging from £14,995 up to £333,000 .
The repair costs associated with EVs are well-documented. EV claims are already ~25.5% more expensive than their Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) equivalents that run on fossil fuels and are taking ~14% longer to repair.
So, the industry faces higher car values, higher repair costs and higher risks of flood. Correlating the risk of flood from rivers and from surface water with the presence of high value vehicles in a given area has therefore become imperative for motor insurance providers to price accurately and understand their exposures and accumulations.
The value of this insight is clear in areas such as Royal Leamington Spa where the River Avon flooded as a result of Storm Henk at the beginning of 2024. Our analysis shows that this area has a high concentration of prestige internal combustion engine and electric vehicles .
Thanks to geospatial intelligence data mapping tools, it is now possible to plot out the approximate location of all vehicles in a book of business based on the policyholder’s home address and focus in on the vehicles that are high value/EV/Hybrid and at risk from flood water.
Insurance providers can then immediately understand exactly where they have accumulations of risks in a specific area should a flood occur and take a decision to stop underwriting high value vehicles in that locality. Furthermore, in the lead up to and during a flood, they can monitor where the water is going, alert policyholders to the risks, for example, warning them never to drive into flood water that’s moving, or deeper than 10cm (4 inches) and have claims teams prepared.
It's important to point out that electric cars are no more vulnerable to water than combustion-engine vehicles. They must pass strict safety standards, and their high-voltage components are insulated and shielded from water. Many EVs use fail-safe systems that shut down electrical components if a fault or collision occurs. However, traditionally it is water damage to complex electronic circuits and components that have led to defects and failures in the past and an EV will have an increased number of such systems.
In fact, electric cars may perform better if driven through standing water, as combustion engines risk water intake through air-intake leading to engine seizure as water can’t be compressed within the engine internals. The main issue is the value of the vehicle, and the cost of repairs compared with ICE cars.
Forecasters predict Climate change has made the devastating events, such as Storm Desmond in 2015, 59% more likely .
Meanwhile intense rainfall associated with severe flash flooding could become four times more likely by 2080 .
And while we had one of the wettest winters on record in 2023/2024 , claims data shared by Aviva showed that 24% of flood claims occur in July and August. The summer months see a peak in flash flood claims in Greater London, the South East and the East of England.
Insurance providers increasingly need to examine where in the U.K. they have the largest concentrations of high value vehicles and EVs on cover and correlate this to flood risk. With the aid of policy data and geospatial data visualisation tools such as LexisNexis® Map View, they can mitigate their losses and protect customers from flood damage that in some cases might be avoidable.
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