After many solicitations of opinions, the industry's long-awaited new energy vehicle insurance terms and benchmark premium schedules have finally landed.
On December 14, the China Insurance Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as the "China Insurance Association") officially issued the Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance of New Energy Vehicles (Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the "Exclusive Clauses"). On the same day, the China Association of Actuaries issued the Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles (Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the "Benchmark Premium Table"). At this point, new energy vehicles will officially enter the era of exclusive car insurance.
Comparing the exclusive clauses and the previous draft for comments, the first financial reporter has not made major changes in general, mainly because two additional insurances have been deleted. However, compared with the traditional car insurance clauses, the exclusive clause has greatly expanded the insurance liability for the characteristics of new energy vehicles, and the risks such as battery system problems and fire and combustion are included in the main clauses; additional insurance also includes charging piles, external power grids and other products that are consistent with the characteristics of new energy vehicles.
"We have completed a series of preparations such as process sorting and product training, and now we are waiting for the new energy vehicle insurance product to be officially launched." An insurance company person told the first financial reporter.
The formal terms finally landed
"This exclusive clause has been waiting for a long time for both the insurance industry and new energy vehicle owners, because the past clauses are really not suitable." The above-mentioned insurance company person sighed.
According to the latest data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in November this year, the monthly production and sales of new energy vehicles in China exceeded 400,000 for the first time, and the production and sales reached a record high. In the first 11 months of this year, the market penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 12.7%. At the same time, according to the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", it is proposed that by 2025, the sales of new energy vehicles will reach 20% of the total sales of new vehicles; by 2035, pure electric vehicles will become the mainstream of new cars.
In the past, new energy vehicles with rising ownership did not have exclusive car insurance products, but followed the terms of fuel vehicle insurance. The differentiated risk characteristics have made the new energy vehicles and traditional car insurance adopt the same terms in the past two years, resulting in high compensation. At the same time, as we all know, the core technology that distinguishes new energy vehicles from traditional vehicles is "three electricity" (including batteries and energy storage systems, motors and drive systems, and other control systems). These core components are not reflected in traditional car insurance for fuel vehicles, so disputes often arise in claims.
Judging from the structure of the model clauses, like fuel vehicle insurance, they include three main clauses of vehicle damage insurance, three insurance, vehicle personnel insurance and a number of additional insurances. However, the big difference is that the exclusive clause includes the "three electricity" of new energy vehicles, and clearly stipulates the use status of new energy vehicles, in addition to driving, it also includes parking and charging status. In addition, in view of the risk of battery fire, it is also specially emphasized in the accident of insurance liability that contains fire combustion.
From the perspective of additional insurance, 13 additional insurances are set up in the exclusive clauses, in addition to retaining the scratch insurance and absolute deductible rate in the fuel vehicle insurance, the external risk protection related to new energy vehicles is also added, including the external power grid, self-use charging pile and other exclusive additional insurance, the engine wading insurance that is not suitable for most new energy vehicles is deleted, and the special clause of the additional motor vehicle value-added service is modified to the special clause of the additional new energy vehicle value-added service.
According to the China Insurance Association, the exclusive clause combines the characteristics of charging new energy vehicles to develop the "Self-use Charging Pile Loss Insurance" and "Self-use Charging Pile Liability Insurance", which not only covers the loss of the vehicle, but also includes the loss of auxiliary equipment such as charging piles and the property losses and personal injuries that may be caused by the equipment itself; and concentrates on solving the risks caused by auxiliary facilities in the application of new technologies. This is the first time that auto insurance has underwritten external fixed auxiliary equipment, which is an innovation and exploration in the field of auto insurance.
It is worth mentioning that compared with the public consultation draft in August, the formal exclusive clause deletes two additional insurances in the additional insurance, "additional intelligent auxiliary driving software loss compensation insurance" and "additional fire accident limit doubling insurance". Industry analysts said that the two additional insurance was removed or because the automatic driving technology is not mature enough, the battery technology is still being improved, and the potential risks it brings are still under industry discussion.
Do rates move up or down?
Published along with the exclusive terms, there is also a benchmark premium schedule that accompanies it.
According to the China Association of Actuaries, the benchmark premium table of new energy vehicle insurance is the basis for the development and pricing of new energy vehicle insurance products in the industry.
According to the association, in May 2021, the calculation of new energy benchmark pure risk premiums was officially launched. The project team carried out multiple rounds of cleaning, scheme calculation and rate smoothing of about 51.62 million new energy vehicle commercial insurance underwriting data and 9.23 million claim data in the first quarter of 2018 to 2021, calculated and compiled the pure risk premium table of the main insurance such as new energy exclusive vehicle damage insurance and liability insurance, and combined with the characteristics of new energy vehicles, added additional insurance benchmark pure risk premium tables such as external power grid fault loss insurance, self-use charging pile loss insurance, and self-use charging pile liability insurance.
The Chinese Association of Actuaries did not publish the specific content of the benchmark premium schedule on its official website. However, according to media reports, the "Explanation on the Adjustment of the Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table for Exclusive Products of New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance" issued by the China Insurance Industry Association to property insurance companies in early December shows that compared with the current benchmark premiums of traditional car insurance, the benchmark premiums of the three insurances and car damage insurance of new energy vehicles have dropped by 0.8% overall. Among them, the benchmark premiums of the three insurances fell by 0.1% compared with the current ones, and the benchmark premiums of the vehicle damage insurance fell by 1.2% compared with the current ones.
Guotai Junan Research Report said that from the survey situation, it is expected that the benchmark premium of new energy vehicles under the exclusive clause will decrease slightly compared with the benchmark premium of the current comprehensive reform, while the specific insurance liability of new energy vehicles has increased, so the implementation of the new regulations will have a slight negative impact on the premiums and profits of property insurance companies, but the overall impact is limited.
Shenwan Hongyuan also said that according to The China Bank Insurance Credit, the average premium of new energy vehicle insurance policies is 21% higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles. It is expected that with the continuous deepening of the comprehensive reform of automobile insurance and the continuous enrichment of new energy vehicle insurance pricing, the average premium of vehicles will face downward pressure. Objectively speaking, in recent years, the policy formulation of the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has taken the profit of car insurance consumers and the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of consumers as the starting point, as the "last kilometer" connecting car owners and new energy vehicles, and it is expected that the price increase of new energy vehicle insurance will be more difficult.
Industry insiders said that the depreciation coefficients brought about by the age of the car will also have a significant impact on the sum insured and premium. The insurance amount is determined according to the actual value of the new energy vehicle insured at the time of application. The actual value is determined by the price negotiated by the purchase price of the new car minus the depreciation amount. The higher the depreciation factor, the greater the depreciation amount and the smaller the sum insured.
In traditional car insurance, the depreciation coefficient of household self-use and non-operating vehicles with less than 9 seats is 0.6% per month, while in the exclusive clause, new energy vehicles are differentiated according to price, and the monthly depreciation coefficient varies from 0.63% to 0.82%, which is a certain increase compared with the traditional car insurance clause.
Source: Shenwan Hongyuan
Shenwan Hongyuan believes that as an emerging product, new energy vehicles have a fast battery technology development and product iteration speed, large market price fluctuations, and battery attenuation to a certain extent can only be replaced; at the same time, the small number of spare parts during maintenance leads to high maintenance costs. These factors have led to a high depreciation coefficient and low retention rate of new energy vehicles.
"It is foreseeable that due to the increase in depreciation coefficient, with the increase in the age of the vehicle, the actual value of new energy vehicles will decline more than that of fuel vehicles, so the insurance amount will also decline, and the result is that the rate under the new energy vehicle clause increases significantly compared with the current clause with the increase of the age of the vehicle." Shenwan Hongyuan said.
Blue ocean market, full of challenges
Although the industry has been looking forward to new energy vehicle insurance clauses for many years, it is not easy to look at the process of landing new energy auto insurance clauses.
The first financial reporter learned that in fact, in 2018, the China Insurance Industry Association had solicited opinions on new energy vehicle insurance in the industry, but there was no following. In June this year, the new version of the new energy vehicle insurance clause was again solicited in the industry for comments, and in August it was officially opened to the public for comments.
The China Insurance Association said that in order to ensure that the development process of the terms is scientific and rigorous, the Insurance Association organized major companies in the industry to set up working groups to combine government, industry, education and research to carry out product development work. In the course of more than a year, the working group visited dozens of major domestic new energy vehicle manufacturers, power battery manufacturers, national research institutes, data monitoring platforms, etc., held more than 20 forums in different forms, invited nearly 100 representatives from all walks of life in society, and drafted and completed exclusive clauses on the basis of extensive research and repeated arguments.
"New energy vehicles are a new thing, car insurance is a financial tool in the ecological chain of new energy vehicles, supervision has actually been communicating with the insurance industry and new energy vehicle companies, but it involves the judgment of vehicle risks, how the terms include various technical routes, the final pricing standards and other issues, which are all challenges for the industry." An insurance industry veteran told the first financial reporter.
After the introduction of the clause, the next step is the landing of the official product. CBN consulted a large insurance company Shanghai branch on when the product landed, and said that the company's new energy vehicle insurance products have not yet been declared, and the launch time has not been finalized.
Although the launch of new energy auto insurance products still needs to wait, there is no doubt that this "blue ocean" insurance companies do not want to miss it. According to Shenwan Hongyuan, with the continuous increase in the ownership of new energy vehicles, the premium scale of new energy vehicle insurance is expected to continue to rise, and the premium scale of this market is expected to reach 400.7 billion yuan in 2030.
However, in the face of this "blue ocean", industry insiders generally believe that insurance companies still face many challenges in the process of operating new energy vehicle insurance.
Comprehensive first financial interview of a number of industry insiders, from the perspective of the insurance company itself, on the one hand, the overall compensation situation of new energy vehicles in the past is generally higher than that of fuel vehicles, and the profit space is quite challenging; on the other hand, new energy vehicle insurance as a new thing experience data accumulation is less, for pricing, maintenance cost control, etc. Are difficult; and from the perspective of new energy vehicle ecology, the current position of new car-making forces is relatively strong, the core data is firmly in their own hands, and the fixed loss and maintenance need to be intervened by car companies. And the supply of parts is far less abundant than that of traditional fuel vehicles, so it is easy to lead to inflated compensation costs of insurance companies; and at present, Tesla and other new car-making forces are gradually involved in the field of new energy vehicle insurance, which will undoubtedly cause competitive pressure for traditional insurance companies.
Guotai Junan believes that in the case of limited profit space for new energy vehicle insurance, leading insurance companies that expect more advantageous rates will benefit more. On the one hand, the effect of dilution of fixed fees of large insurance companies is remarkable, on the other hand, the proportion of direct control channels of large insurance companies is higher, and the handling fee is relatively low. Many industry insiders said that compared with large insurance companies, the car insurance underwriting bargaining of small and medium-sized insurance companies will be more difficult, but at present, the new energy vehicle ecology is in the process of formation, if small and medium-sized insurance companies can seize the opportunity of new energy vehicle insurance by cooperating with car companies and ecosystems, applying insurance technology to achieve refined pricing, etc., to provide differentiated personalized services, it may become a breakthrough for small and medium-sized insurance companies.