Hundreds of billions of new energy vehicle insurance has broken the situation again, and the "spontaneous combustion" scenario can be claimed, but the enthusiasm of insurance companies is not high

Wen | Ni Yuping, a weekly magazine of "Finance and Economics"

Edited | Sun Yue

The highly popular new energy vehicle insurance has finally made new progress.

Recently, the China Insurance Industry Association issued the "New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance Exclusive Clauses (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Exclusive Clauses"), and at about the same time, the China Actuaries Association also immediately issued the "New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table (Trial)", which provided a benchmark and basis for the development and pricing of new energy vehicle insurance products.

Although the above two documents are still in the trial stage, relevant people in the insurance industry told Caijing Tianxia Weekly that for new energy vehicles, this means that they have finally ushered in their own "own underwriting rules".

It is understood that in the exclusive terms of this time, the key "three electricity" (battery, drive motor, vehicle electric controller) system is included in the scope of insurance. At the same time, scenes such as fire and spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles are also in the insurance liability of insurance companies.

"Exclusive clauses will undoubtedly better provide more perfect protection services for new energy vehicle owners," industry insiders said, for insurance companies, new energy vehicles have higher claims costs, underwriting profits are lower embarrassing situation, "this is both an opportunity and a challenge." ”

The "three electricity" system is included in the scope of guarantee, and the guarantee responsibility is constantly expanding

The exclusive clause clarifies the definition of new energy vehicles, which refers to vehicles that use new power systems and rely solely on new energy sources, including plug-in hybrid (including range extender) vehicles, pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles. For these vehicles, the insurance covers the body, battery and energy storage systems, motors and drive systems, other control systems, and all other equipment at the factory.

In addition, the clause stipulates that during the insurance period, the insured or the driver of the insured new energy vehicle, in the process of using the insured new energy vehicle, causes direct losses of the insured new energy vehicle equipment due to natural disasters or accidents (including fire and combustion), and does not fall within the scope of exemption from the insurer's liability, and the insurer is responsible for compensation in accordance with the provisions of this insurance contract.

It is reported that the exclusive terms of this time will be divided into two parts: main insurance and additional insurance. The main insurance includes new energy vehicle loss insurance, new energy vehicle third-party liability insurance, new energy vehicle vehicle personnel liability insurance, the three types of insurance are independent of each other, the insured can choose to apply for all of them, you can also choose some of the insurance types for insurance.

In August this year, the China Insurance Association issued a draft of exclusive terms for commercial insurance for new energy vehicles. Compared with the Exposure Draft, the main insurance of the exclusive clause expands the insurance liability. One detail is that the exclusive clause after 4 months is described more carefully in the exclusion of liability section, removing the ambiguous "place of business" expression. Ge Yuxiang, an analyst at Shenhong Wanyuan Securities, explained that the "period of repair, maintenance and modification of commercial premises" should be understood as a state in which the vehicle is not suitable for normal driving and the risk of accidents has increased significantly. However, in practice, there are disputes over the expression "place of business", for example, whether the vehicle is insured in the process of moving from one repair shop to another, whether it is during the maintenance of the place of business, etc., (easily) giving rise to disputes over claims.

In addition, the vehicle loss insurance also focuses on the vehicle loss insurance to clarify the "three electricity" system and factory equipment are the insurance liability of the vehicle loss insurance.

In the additional insurance, the exclusive clause has also increased from the previous 6 to 13 items, adding additional absolute deductible rate special clauses, additional wheel loss insurance, additional newly added equipment loss insurance, additional body scratch loss insurance, additional repair period cost compensation insurance, additional vehicle cargo liability insurance, additional mental damage consolation payment liability insurance, additional statutory holiday limit doubling insurance, additional medical expenses liability insurance outside medical insurance and other 9 protection contents, at the same time, The exclusive clause removes the additional intelligent driver assistance software loss compensation insurance and the additional fire accident limit doubling insurance.

In recent years, new energy vehicles have gradually become a major trend in the market. Relevant data show that in 2020, the number of new energy vehicles reached 4.92 million, an increase of 29.1% year-on-year. The "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)" also proposes that by 2025, the new car sales of new energy vehicles will reach 20% of the total new car sales; by 2035, pure electric vehicles will become the mainstream of new cars.

As a result, the industry generally believes that new energy vehicle insurance may be an incremental market for property insurance companies after the comprehensive reform. Shenhong Wanyuan Research Report predicts that in 2025, the scale of premiums will reach 154.3 billion yuan.

Insurance companies are not enthusiastic about underwriting?

In fact, in the face of the "blue ocean" of new energy vehicles, the willingness of insurance companies to underwrite may not be as positive as imagined.

Previously, an insurance company's refusal to underwrite Tesla owners due to rumors has aroused widespread concern inside and outside the industry. Although the insurance company later denied the rumors, saying that "there is no thing". However, this may also reflect the negative attitude of insurance companies towards new energy vehicle insurance - the above insurance practitioners use "loss wear" to describe the underwriting risk of new energy vehicles.

Some relevant people also pointed out to the "Finance world" weekly that "the underwriting loss of new energy vehicles is an industry loss". As disclosed in the Shenhong Wanyuan Research Report, the current loss ratio of new energy vehicle insurance generally exceeds 85%, and the industry is facing greater underwriting loss pressure. Due to the poor pricing ability of small and medium-sized companies and the weak ability to screen customers, the comprehensive cost ratio of new energy vehicle insurance has reached 110%.

This is related to the characteristics of new energy vehicles themselves, "the 'three electricity' system accounts for about 60% of the vehicle cost, the battery system accounts for about 40% of the vehicle cost, and the technical maturity is still in the process of continuous optimization, and the risk factors are higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles", Ge Yuxiang, an analyst at Shenhong Wanyuan Securities, pointed out. The risk of spontaneous combustion of new energy vehicles also drives up the cost of claims.

The cost of man-hours and accessories for new energy vehicles is also higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles, which also increases the cost of claims accordingly. According to the risk analysis report released by China Bancassurance in 2018, the average compensation for new energy vehicle cases is 431 yuan higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles. The high cost of settlement of claims in the case is mainly due to the higher working hours and accessories costs for the maintenance of new energy vehicles than traditional models.

In addition, higher depreciation rates have led to an increase in underwriting rates as they age. Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Research Report deduced that with the increase in vehicle age, the rate of new energy vehicles will accelerate. However, due to the fact that the retention rate will also decline, the overall cost of insurance will decrease slightly.

But at the same time, the research report also said, "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 consumers' rights and interests as the starting point, as the 'last kilometer' connecting car owners and new energy vehicles, we expect that it will be more difficult to increase the price of new energy vehicle insurance." "Therefore, the head company relies on its natural advantages in pricing, customer reserves and manufacturer cooperation capabilities to basically maintain underwriting breakeven." With the continuous deepening of the comprehensive reform of automobile insurance and the continuous improvement of the price-fee linkage mechanism, the competitive advantage of the head enterprise is expected to further emerge.

Guotai Junan Securities Research Report also pointed out that considering that the current industry's new energy vehicle loss rate is generally higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles, if the profit cost space of new energy vehicles is relatively small, it is expected that leading insurance companies with 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.

Head insurance companies have also stepped up their layout in this new field. In October this year, PICC Property & Casualty and CATL held a strategic cooperation framework agreement, in which the two sides will cooperate in the field of automotive aftermarket, further establish a multi-level and multi-field strategic partnership, and work together to promote the progress of new energy vehicle science and technology. It is understood that the auto aftermarket refers to a variety of services around the use of the car after the sale of the car.

In terms of car companies, traditional car companies such as GAC Group and SAIC Motor Group are also involved in the insurance field. The former established Zhongcheng Auto Insurance, while the latter formed the Insurance Sales Company of Shanghai Automobile Group; while new energy vehicle companies such as Tesla and Weilai Automobile have launched self-operated insurance products.

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