After more than 4 months of public consultation, the industry's long-awaited commercial insurance for new energy vehicles has finally ushered in exclusive terms.
Recently, the China Insurance Industry Association issued the "Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Clauses"), including the "Model Clauses for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles (Trial)" and the "Model Clauses for Accident Injury Insurance for Drivers and Occupants of New Energy Vehicles (Trial)", which not only provide protection for the "three electricity" system of new energy vehicles, but also comprehensively cover the use scenarios of new energy vehicles driving, parking, charging and operation.
New/renewal policies are covered at rate switching times
Prior to this, due to the delay in the introduction of exclusive insurance for new energy vehicles, new energy vehicles have been using the insurance terms of fuel vehicles. The new energy vehicle uses the power battery as an energy storage device and vehicle auxiliary equipment to extend to the charging facility, and in the process of vehicle use, in addition to the traditional traffic accident risk, the major accidents caused by the fire and deflagration of the power battery also constitute a new risk factor. Regarding such risks, the insurance clauses of fuel vehicles are not included, and the release of exclusive insurance for new energy vehicles is a box of reassurance pills for new energy car owners.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Association, believes that considering the different stages of market development, it is necessary to launch exclusive insurance for new energy vehicles to protect the interests of consumers. "The introduction of special insurance for new energy vehicles will increase consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing and using new energy vehicles, increase the sales of new energy vehicles, and play a better role in promoting the development of new energy vehicles."
The China Insurance Industry Association pointed out that according to the rate switching time of the "Model Clauses for Commercial Insurance of New Energy Vehicles (Trial)", all new energy vehicles (excluding motorcycles, tractors and special vehicles) that are newly insured and renewed are uniformly underwritten by the "Model Clauses for Commercial Insurance of New Energy Vehicles (Trial)", and no longer use the Model Clauses for Motor Vehicle Commercial Insurance of the China Insurance Industry Association (2020 Edition), and non-new energy vehicles cannot be insured by the "New Energy Vehicle Model Clauses (Trial)".
For the definition of new energy vehicles, the "Provisions" give a clear explanation, that is, the use of a new power system, completely or mainly rely on the new energy drive of the car, on the road for personnel passengers or for the transport of goods and special operations of wheeled vehicles, tracked vehicles and other means of delivery. Including plug-in hybrid vehicles (including range extenders), pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, but excluding motorcycles, tractors, special vehicles.
Three electricity, spontaneous combustion is included in the scope of protection
The Terms and Conditions include both main and additional risks. Among them, the main insurance includes three independent types of insurance: new energy vehicle loss insurance, new energy vehicle third-party liability insurance, and new energy vehicle personnel liability insurance. The insured can choose to insure all types of insurance, or some of them, and additional insurance cannot be insured independently.
Specifically, the coverage of new energy vehicle loss insurance is that the insured or the insured new energy vehicle driver uses (including driving, parking, charging and operation) in the process of using the insured new energy vehicle, due to natural disasters, accidents (including fire and combustion) resulting in direct losses of the insured new energy vehicle body, battery and energy storage system, motor and drive system, other control systems, and all other equipment at the factory.
The main coverage of third-party liability insurance for new energy vehicles is that the insured or its permitted drivers have accidents (including fires and burnings) in the process of using (including driving, parking, charging and operating) of the insured new energy vehicles, resulting in personal injury or death or direct damage to property of the third party.
The main coverage of the new energy vehicle occupancy liability insurance is that the insured or its permitted drivers have accidents (including fire and burning) in the process of using (including driving, parking, charging and operating) the insured new energy vehicles, resulting in personal injury or death of the occupants of the vehicle.
It can be seen from the above three main insurances that the inclusion of sanden in the scope of new energy vehicle insurance protection is a highlight of this insurance. As we all know, the power battery of new energy vehicles accounts for a large proportion of the value of the whole vehicle, and once the power battery is accidentally damaged, it needs to be replaced. Take a new energy vehicle worth 100,000 yuan as an example, the cost of replacing the battery is about 40,000 yuan. Previously, once such an accident occurred in a new energy vehicle, the excessive maintenance cost would bring a heavy burden to consumers. Nowadays, with the protection of new energy vehicle insurance, consumer losses will be minimized.
In addition, the main insurance focuses on the inclusion of "spontaneous combustion (fire combustion)" liability in the accident liability, which to some extent breaks consumers' concerns about the "spontaneous combustion" of new energy vehicles. It should be known that in recent years, the "spontaneous combustion" of new energy vehicles has occurred frequently. According to incomplete statistics, in 2020 alone, there were more than 100 fire accidents in new energy vehicles.
In addition to the three main insurances, the Clauses also contain 13 additional insurances, of which 4 are exclusive to new energy vehicles, including: additional external grid fault loss insurance, additional self-use charging pile loss insurance, additional self-use charging pile liability insurance, and additional special clauses for value-added services for new energy vehicles.
According to the China Insurance Industry Association, the additional external power grid fault loss insurance covers vehicle losses caused by external power grid transmission and transformation failures, current and voltage abnormalities, etc., which is combined with the risks in the charging process of new energy vehicles, reflecting humanized protection; additional self-use charging pile loss insurance and additional self-use charging pile liability insurance are developed in combination with new energy vehicle charging, showing that new energy vehicle insurance covers both the loss of the vehicle, as well as the loss of auxiliary equipment such as charging piles and the property losses and personal injuries that may be caused by the equipment itself. 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; the special clause of the value-added service for new energy vehicles is a value-added service specially revised according to new energy vehicles.
It is not difficult to see that compared with traditional motor vehicle commercial insurance, the Clauses show the exclusivity of new energy vehicle insurance. In the development of the terms, it not only considers the current mainstream technology route, but also leaves room for innovation in the new format of the new energy automobile industry. This also shows that the supervision fully takes into account the product attributes and risk characteristics of new energy vehicles, and starts from the interests of users to make new energy vehicles have their own insurance protection.
However, there are also some losses and expenses that are not covered by the insurance coverage of new energy vehicles. The "Clauses" clearly stipulate that the insurance company is not responsible for compensation for natural wear and tear, battery attenuation, decay, corrosion, failure, and its own quality defects.
The depreciation rate is higher than that of fuel vehicles
Another significant element of new energy vehicle insurance is the premium, which is related to the actual value of each vehicle at the time of insurance. Regarding premiums, previously, the Insurance Association of China issued the "Explanation on the Adjustment of the Pure Risk Premium Table of the Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table of the Exclusive Products of New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance" (hereinafter referred to as the "Instructions") to property insurance companies, and in terms of rates, the "Notes" showed 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 fell by 0.8% as a whole. 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%.
Industry insiders believe that from the perspective of the "Explanation", although the benchmark premium has declined, it remains to be seen whether the rate will fall after the use of the exclusive "Clause" considering the current high insurance rate and maintenance costs of new energy vehicles.
For the depreciation of new energy vehicles, the "Clauses" also give a reference depreciation coefficient table. Overall, the depreciation of new energy vehicles is calculated on a monthly basis, and the part less than one month is not depreciated. The maximum depreciation amount shall not exceed 80% of the purchase price of the new energy vehicle insured at the time of insurance. The change in the depreciation rate of new energy vehicle insurance is mainly reflected in the self-use and non-operating pure electric new energy vehicles of buses with less than 9 seats. Among them, the depreciation coefficient of pure electric vehicles ranges from 0.68% to 0.82%; the depreciation coefficient of plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles is 0.63%.
Depreciation coefficient table of household self-use and non-operating pure electric new energy vehicles for passenger cars with less than 9 seats
New car purchase price range (10,000 yuan) Pure electric vehicle depreciation coefficient (monthly) 0-100.82% 10-200.77% 20-300.72% 30 above 0.68%
Depreciation coefficient table of new energy vehicles with household use and non-operating plug-in hybrid and fuel cell for passenger cars with less than 9 seats
New car purchase price range
Depreciation coefficient for plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles (monthly)
All price ranges
0.63%
Obviously, compared with the 0.6% monthly depreciation rate of traditional fuel vehicle insurance, the depreciation rate of new energy vehicle insurance is generally high. Among them, pure electric vehicles have the highest depreciation rate, and the lower the vehicle price, the faster the depreciation.
It is worth noting that the higher the depreciation coefficient, the greater the amount of depreciation, which makes the actual value of the vehicle at the same price point smaller. In short, compared with fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles at the same price point have higher depreciation, and the final amount of vehicle insurance can be lower.
Premiums in 2030 will reach $1,279 billion
According to the data, the production and sales of new energy vehicles from January to November 2021 were 3.023 million units and 2.99 million units, respectively, an increase of 1.7 times year-on-year, and the market penetration rate was 12.7%. In the first three quarters of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 6.78 million. Up to now, China's new energy vehicle production, sales and ownership have ranked first in the world for six consecutive years. With the continuous increase of new energy vehicle ownership, the new energy exclusive car insurance market will also usher in new development opportunities.
According to China Bancassurance, the premium scale of new energy vehicle insurance in 2017 was 10.16 billion yuan, accounting for 1.4% of the total motor insurance premium. It is estimated that by 2025, the premium scale of new energy vehicles will reach 154.3 billion yuan, accounting for about 15.7% of the total premiums of motor insurance; by 2030, the premium scale of new energy vehicle insurance will reach 1,279 billion yuan, accounting for more than 30% of the total premiums of automobile insurance.
It can be seen that the release of the "New Energy Vehicle Model Regulations (Trial)" will include the most core technologies and components of new energy vehicles into the insurance liability, which can not only allow car owners to purchase new energy vehicles with more confidence, but also minimize the losses of car owners in some unexpected circumstances, which will promote the sustainable development of new energy vehicles to a certain extent. At the same time, China's "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" pointed out that by 2025, the sales volume of new energy vehicles should reach about 20% of the total sales of new vehicles. The state's support for the development of new energy vehicles has also brought a broader space for the development of new energy vehicle exclusive insurance.