What insurance group is my car?

Some cars cost more than others to insure. Car insurance groups are one of the factors that can affect how much you pay on your insurance. So, what are these car insurance groups all about, and what insurance group is your car in? Read on to find out more.

Understanding car insurance groups

What is a car insurance group? Basically, these groups are categories insurance providers use to decide how much to charge for cover. There are other factors that insurance providers also take into account, but car insurance groups are quite important in defining how much you'd pay for your premiums.

In total there are 50 car insurance groups. On average, the lower the group number, the lower the premium cost — so a car in group 1 will generally cost quite a lot less to insure than a car in group 50. Knowing what insurance group a car belongs to can help you save some money on your insurance when buying a new car, although there are other factors you might want to bear in mind - we'll look at a few of these below. Smaller, lower-cost vehicles like the Nissan Micra and Citroen C1, for example, might be found in group 1, while the Renault Twingo or Seat Ibiza might be classed as insurance group 3 cars.

At the other end of the spectrum, cars like the Audi A6 Avant or the Jaguar XE tend to be group 50 — the most expensive cars to insure.

How are car insurance groups decided?

Which group a car belongs to is decided by the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The ABI holds a monthly Group Rating Panel where they decide which group each new car model should go in. But how do they make the decision? You might think that car insurance groups are all about the value of the vehicle, and while it's definitely a factor, it's just one factor of many. The ABI's panel will consider:

• The value of the car when new — Yes, the cost of a new model of the car is important.
• The ease of repair and replacement for components — If parts need to be repaired or replaced, how much is this going to cost? And how long's it going to take?
• The top speed and acceleration of the car — Faster, high-performance cars are more powerful and so seen as riskier to insurance providers.
• The car's avoidance features — If the car has built-in features that could prevent accidents, like for example automatic emergency braking, this could lead to a lower grouping.
• The security features — Just like with accident avoidance, if the car's fitted with anti-theft features, it may be placed in a lower group.
• The chassis and bumper structure — This might seem like a weird one, but the structure of the bumper and chassis can affect the grouping, because it's the bumper takes the full force of most accidents. If the bumper would be difficult to replace due to its structure, it'll likely put the car in a higher group.

Insurance groups are important, but they're not everything

Other factors that affect your car insurance. For example:

• Your driving experience
• Your claims and insurance history
• Your address — or the place you're going to be parking your car regularly, particularly overnight
• Your driving habits and how far you're going to be driving on a regular basis
• Your voluntary car insurance excess — If you're happy to pay more excess, you might be able to get a lower premium.
• Your car's history, including modifications and other work you may have had done
• Your coverage — Comprehensive cover will generally cost more than more basic forms of insurance.
• Your other named drivers — Adding named drivers to your policy may push your premiums up, but not in all cases. But adding a named driver with lots of experience on the road and good or non-existent claims history may not have such an impact on the premium.  
• Your age      
• Your job      

Car insurance groups and electric vehicles

What car insurance group does an electric vehicle fall into? Well, it depends on the vehicle itself. The same criteria we've looked at above will be used to place the car in an insurance group. This means that more expensive electric vehicles and/or electric vehicles that have been modified are likely to be in a higher group.

Also, there's the parts and components to consider. While electric vehicles are starting to get popular among British drivers, they are still less common on our roads than more traditional petrol and diesel cars. This can make it trickier to source replacement parts, which can push the car into a higher group.

What is my car insurance group?

You can check out car insurance group prices tables online to find out the insurance group your car belongs to.

A few final tips...

• When you're buying a car, it could be worth checking out which insurance group the make and model different cars are in — this might help you save you a bit of money.
• Insurance groups tend to be about the risk to the insurance provider. A safer, more secure vehicle, with easily sourced parts, will likely be in a lower grouping.
• There may be other factors that affect how much you pay for your car insurance outside of the insurance grouping system.

Urban Jungle is not a financial advisor and information in this article should not be taken as advice or recommendation.