Does going Green affect your Car Insurance?

Many factors affect your car insurance premium like:

• Your Driving Habits
• Your Driving History: number of violations and accidents
• Your average yearly mileage
• Your number of claims filed
• Your neighborhood
• Your Credit Score

Insurance companies rate the risk of all of these factors and follow trends to set your premiums. A recent trend in the automotive industry is the introduction of green car or hybrids. Several types of automobiles are labeled green or hybrids. There are two types of combination hybrids series and parallel. The combination hybrid uses both a battery driven electric motor and a gas engine. The electric motor allows for a smaller, lighter more fuel efficient gas engine. In a parallel hybrid the electric and combustion motors both the transmission together. In a series hybrid, the combustion engine is only used to recharge the batteries, and the electric motor does all the work of driving the transmission. There are PEV's (plug in electrical vehicles like the Nissan leaf) that use battery as the only power source; not to mention automobiles developed around natural gas as the fuel source are available on the market.

Most green cars on the road today are combination hybrids (gas and battery). They average between 45 and 55 mpg. With today's volatile fuel prices that can add up to considerable savings at the pump, and the most popular models have good safety ratings. So does going green save you on car insurance? The answer is yes and no.

Many of the green cars are higher end, and higher price tag automobiles. The higher the initial cost of the car, the more expensive your car insurance. Don't lose heart if you want to go green to save the environment, or just to save money at the pump. Most automobile manufacturers are rolling more moderately priced green machines off the assembly line. While the sticker price is still a bit higher than their non-green models, the range of models is opening up. There are green versions now offered in most price ranges. You can now buy a mid priced 4 door sedan version that is not only limited to the luxury line. If you want to go green the mid to compact size models will save you on car insurance and at the pump.