If a new energy vehicle is involved in an accident, there is a new standard for how to compensate for insurance

In recent years, the number of new energy vehicles has gradually increased, with an increase of more than 1 million units for three consecutive years. According to data from the Ministry of Public Security, as of September this year, the number of new energy vehicles in the country reached 6.78 million, accounting for 2.28% of the total number of vehicles. Judging from the new registration, in the first three quarters of 2021, 1.871 million new energy vehicles were newly registered nationwide, an increase of 178.49% year-on-year.

The rapid development of the new energy automobile industry has also brought new challenges. The relevant person in charge of the China Insurance Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as the "China Insurance Association") said that new energy vehicles use power batteries as energy storage devices, vehicle auxiliary equipment extends to charging facilities, in the process of vehicle use, in addition to the traditional traffic accident risks, power battery fire, deflagration caused by major accidents will also constitute new risk factors.

For the above risks, traditional car insurance is obviously no longer covered, resulting in frequent disputes in new energy vehicles when settling claims, and the industry urgently needs product innovation to upgrade insurance protection and insurance services.

On December 14, the China Insurance Association issued the Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles (Trial Implementation). The release of the "Provisions" has solved the worries of new energy vehicle owners to a certain extent.

Clarify the concept of new energy vehicles

The Terms and Conditions issued this time are divided into 3 main insurances and 13 additional insurances.

Among them, the main insurance includes three independent types of insurance, including new energy vehicle loss insurance, new energy vehicle third-party liability insurance, and new energy vehicle vehicle personnel liability insurance. There are also 17 additional insurances, including additional external grid fault loss insurance, additional self-use charging pile loss insurance, and additional self-use charging pile liability insurance.

For the concept of new energy vehicles, the "Provisions" clearly stipulate that it refers to vehicles that use new power systems and rely entirely or mainly on new energy drives, including plug-in hybrid (including range extender) vehicles, pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.

"Spontaneous combustion" is guaranteed

For a long time, the problem of "spontaneous combustion" of vehicles has always caused headaches for many new energy vehicle owners.

Relevant data show that among the causes of spontaneous combustion accidents in new energy vehicles, spontaneous combustion accidents in the charging and full-charge static state accounted for 38% and 24% respectively, especially when the battery state of charge (SOC) exceeded 90%, accounting for 45% of the number of spontaneous combustion accidents.

In view of this problem, the Clauses explicitly include accidents (including fire and combustion) in the insurance liability of the main insurance (car damage insurance, third-party liability insurance, and vehicle personnel liability insurance), clarify that the use status of new energy vehicles includes driving, parking, charging and operation, and delete the ambiguous "commercial place" expression in the exemption of liability.

"Three electrics" is included in the car damage insurance

Compared with the traditional car insurance clauses, the biggest change in the "Clauses" is that the core three-electric system of new energy vehicles is included in the insurance liability, filling the insurance gap of the "three electric" system risks of new energy vehicles.

The so-called "three electricity" refers to batteries and energy storage systems, motors and drive systems, and other control systems. In the past, although the vehicle spontaneous combustion protection has been included in the scope of vehicle damage insurance liability, accessories such as batteries are not included in the scope of protection.

According to the "Clause", as long as the relevant additional insurance is purchased and complies with the pre-agreed agreement, the direct loss of the insured new energy vehicle due to the failure of the external power grid, the loss of the self-use charging pile itself in accordance with the regulations, and the personal injury or property loss caused by a third party.

Whether the subsequent premium will be reduced

Compared with traditional cars, new energy vehicles have a higher frequency of insurance. According to the data released by China Bancassurance, in 2017, the insurance rate of new energy vehicles in family cars was 11.7 percentage points higher than that of non-new energy vehicles.

Therefore, before the promulgation of the "Provisions", the premium of new energy vehicles should be generally higher than that of fuel vehicles of the same level. So after the introduction of the "Terms", will the premium drop?

On the 14th, the China Association of Actuaries released the "New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table (Trial)", which provides a benchmark for the pricing of new energy vehicle insurance products in the industry.

Industry experts said that overall, the benchmark premiums of the three insurances and car damage insurance of new energy vehicles have dropped by about 0.8% compared with the benchmark premiums of the current traditional car insurance. Among them, the benchmark premium of the three insurances fell by 0.1%, and the benchmark premium of the car damage insurance fell by 1.2%. It is estimated that nearly 80% of new energy vehicles use exclusive terms to insure car damage insurance and three insurances, and under the same conditions, the premium is flat or decreased. (Text/You Suhang)