Insurance group 49: what it means & typical cost

What does group 49 mean?

The most powerful, expensive or complex-to-repair cars on UK roads sit at the top of the scale, from performance coupés to luxury SUVs. Ratings on this 1–50 scale come from the Group Rating Panel — run jointly by Thatcham Research and the ABI — so group 49 means the same thing whichever car carries it, whether it's a compact hatchback or a performance model. Read our insurance groups explained guide for how the panel scores every car.

Group 49 sits at the expensive end of the scale — typically larger, faster or more complex cars to repair. See our cheapest vs most expensive groups comparison for context on how far it is from the cheapest cars on the road.

How much is insurance group 49?

On our published methodology, the insurance group 49 average cost is about £1,250 a year for a driver aged 30–49 in a medium-risk postcode on comprehensive cover, with most quotes falling between £1,000 and £1,565. That is the insurance group 49 cost before any no-claims discount is applied, so a settled driver with several claim-free years should expect to pay less than the midpoint. Age changes the picture completely: the same car gives a group 49 insurance cost of roughly £3,380 for a 17–20-year-old.

So is group 49 insurance expensive? Measured against the rest of the scale, yes — this is the top of the scale, and the car itself is doing most of the work in the price. For context, our estimates put group 1 at around £220 a year and group 50 at around £1,275 on the same assumptions, which places group 49 in the very high band. The insurance group 49 price you are actually quoted will also move with your postcode, mileage, claims history and excess — the group sets the car-side base rate, not the final figure.

You will often see this written with a letter on dealer listings and quotes, as group 49E. The insurance group 49E cost is identical to plain group 49: the letter identifies which derivative was rated, not a separate price band. However you phrase it — an insurance group 49E average cost, an insurance group 49E price, or a 49E insurance group cost — you are asking about the same figure above.

Prefer to run the numbers on your own circumstances? The car insurance group 49E cost calculator on our pricing page lets you change the age band, postcode risk and cover type rather than accepting our midpoint. One thing we cannot give you is a car insurance quote for group 49E itself — no one can, because a quote prices the driver as well as the car, and the group is only the vehicle half of it.

The estimator sits on our group-by-group pricing page, and the insurance group prices table shows all fifty groups side by side. For the factors that sit outside the car entirely, see what affects car insurance price.

Example cars in insurance group 49

These models from our dataset typically fall in or around group 49 — trim and engine choice can move a specific car up or down within its range, so always check the variant table on each model's own page:

• Land Rover Range Rover — typically groups 40–50
• Porsche Cayenne — typically groups 40–50
• Tesla Model 3 — typically groups 44–50
• Tesla Model Y — typically groups 45–50
• Land Rover Defender — typically groups 36–50
• Tesla Model S — typically groups 48–50
• Tesla Model X — typically groups 48–50

Why some group 49 cars show a letter, like 49E

You may see group 49 written with a letter suffix, such as 49E or 49D — the letter flags a specific trim or derivative, not a different cost scale. See our insurance group letters explained guide for what that means in practice.