21 September 2007
A growing trend of more eco-conscious motorists has driven the demand for green car insurance, although it still remains a niche market, Co-operative Insurance (CIS) has claimed.
As more and more consumers switch onto green forms of consumerism, green car insurance represents one of many options available to people in helping to reduce their carbon footprint.
Leading car insurance providers including More Th>n, which became the first UK insurer to go carbon neutral in December 2006, now offer eco-car insurance discounts, with reduced rates for alternative fuel vehicles such as LPG, dual-fuel and electric models.
Driving a more environmentally friendly car can now help motorists to gain discounts on their insurance, while many car insurance providers now have schemes to offset as much as 20% of the CO2 emissions for the lifetime of a car insurance policy.
"There are more and more consumers now switching on to green forms of consumerism and I think financial services is one of those areas," Duncan Bowker of CIS said.
"The take-up has been very positive and the pleasing thing for us is that the take-up has been across the various demographics, it's not been just one age-group that's been switched on to green insurance, from younger motorists right through to older motorists."
Recent figures show the sales of hybrid cars in the EU have increased significantly during the first six months of 2007 (up by a quarter on the same period last year), while low-emission cars now make up 15% of all new registered cars.
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