They do - nothing like fuel leaking onto a hot exhaust to start a conflagration.
Initially I thought exactly this.
But, as I quickly discovered & explained, third party liability cover only applies where there is a liability. If something happens which is not your fault, you have no liability, ergo there is no onus on your insurance company to compensate the damaged party.
Which is why @_Brian’s daughter’s insurance company is saying that she has to demonstrate negligence on behalf of the other driver/car owner before they can recover her loss from them.
What, perhaps, is rather annoying is that they aren’t helping with this, shrugging their shoulders and (as far as I can tell) saying it is on her to find/prove this negligence if it exists - which is where legal protection comes in - perhaps if this is part of her cover they would be able to offer help. But there again perhaps not.
LP is part of the cover and the legal team’s advice is to claim on her own insurance. They will not help in pursuing a claim against the car which initially and spontaneously caught fire.
What must stick in her craw (and yours I suspect from the first post) is that she gets punished three times - no courtesy car (this is because one is only provided while your own is being repaired - write off = no repair = no courtesy car**), loss of no claims and (no doubt) a hike in her basic premium and all for something that was in no way her fault.
** as I discovered when my car was stolen, this is another scenario where you don’t get a courtesy car unless your own is recovered damaged and needs repair. So while the police are waiting until it turns up you are out of luck and when it doesn’t you are doubly out of luck.
When our car was written off last September by an oncoming driver losing control on a bend in heavy rain we got a free courtesy car for five days, but then had to claim back for renting a car till we’d found a replacement vehicle. We also had to find a new French insurer because, even though it wasn’t our fault, it was our second claim, and that’s that. The first claim wasn’t our fault either - a hit and run kid on a moto had clipped a €2000!) wing mirror and my wife who was in the car by herself was so shocked that she didn’t think of getting his licence plate number…
Eventually we got insured with our previous insurer, but they cranked up the premium.
Indeed. I did some research. If you only look at parked cars EV are still less. But there have been EV recalls. For a parked car, you need a fuel leak and for it to be shortly after the engine stopped so it is still hot.
EV or ICE is not really the issue here. I made my incorrect assumption because of all the electric bike problems. Wrong.
That is awful, and should be illegal. Do they make a difference between an accident claim and a breakdown claim? I have had more than one of those and have had a courtesy car each time. The 2nd time they offered me the train fare to collect my car after it was repaired but, as cross country from here involved many hours going in the wrong direction I offered to make a contribution if they would give me another car. The person on the line paused for 30 seconds to consult a supervisor and then said, ‘you can have a car completely at our expense.’
Mind you it was a Fiat 500 and I was dismayed to be overtaken struggling uphill while being overtaken by caravanners.
Thank you John. I was way off.
Have we actually established if it was an EV or not?
I chose a hybrid last month. I couldn’t face the idea of three expensive recharging stops for a regular journey.
No. I didn’t want this thread to drift off on to the usual shouting match about the pros and cons of different power sources. Whether the fire source was from an ICE or EV is irrelevant to my daughter’s insurance situation.
Totally understand your reasoning. However, I feel that there could be some possible relevance.
Fuel leaking onto a hot pipe could be classed as accidental. A battery exploding could be laid at the door of the manufacturer. Dodge did a recall in the states and told customers not to park in their garages!!
I have beenwi5h Marmut for 20 years . I have all risks and it covers 5star service in Europe and 5he UK . I havehad a few claims and found
them totally fair and above reproach . Guess you get what you pay for in France ?
Yes Charles, I’m planning a little road trip in the UK in August and I was shocked at the cost of public charging. I’m surprised that EVs have made any progress there with the dodgy and expensive charging network’
As this thread seems to have passed the point of no return, I can confirm that the vehicle that spontaneously ignited, destroying my daughter’s car and causing further collateral damage, was an EV. The Fire Brigade believe an overheated controller module was the initial source.
Did it come with a recharging card? That would offer a substantial discount. I hate these over charging stations, fortunately it is only occasional use as most people will charge at home for the majority of their driving. Then we have the motorway services that overcharge for fuel at a far higher rate than a regular non motorway station.
There have been a lot of recalls for potential fire issues with EV cars including Porsche, Rolls Royce, Audi, Jeep and Mercedes Benz.
IMHO, the car manufacturer should be held liable. It’s not the fault of your daughter or the other owner. And it’s not what a manufacturer wants to see on social media so might generate a rapid response.
