Jia Xuan, a reporter from China Economic Weekly
"The fuel money saved has become insurance."
Recently, a Tesla owner posted a car insurance policy on social media. The owner said premiums had soared 80 percent compared to before. This change points to the latest new energy vehicle captive insurance products.
In recent years, due to the different structure of new energy vehicles, in addition to the traditional traffic accident risk in the process of use, there may be major accidents such as power battery fire and deflagration, which constitutes a new risk factor.
On December 27, the Shanghai Insurance Exchange officially launched the new energy vehicle insurance trading platform, and the first batch of new energy vehicle exclusive insurance products of 12 property insurance companies were listed. Since then, all new energy vehicles will be insured by exclusive commercial insurance clauses, and new energy vehicles will officially enter the era of exclusive insurance.
Compared with the past, the "three electricity" systems that were not covered in the past have been included in the protection, and at the same time, the insurance costs of some new energy models have been adjusted by a certain range.
According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first three quarters of this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 6.78 million.
Insurance costs have risen and fallen, and most models have not been adjusted much
In order to explore the price changes of new energy vehicle premiums, the reporter called a number of new energy vehicle 4S stores and related insurance companies, and found that the new energy vehicle insurance trading platform has risen and fallen after the launch of the new energy vehicle insurance trading platform, and the premiums of many models have not changed much. Tesla, whose premiums have soared online, has not increased significantly in all models. In contrast, high-end models generally rose higher.
According to the insurance policy posted by the owner of Tesla, the insured model is Tesla Model Y. It is reported that the owner updated the insurance plan after the new deal and found that the premium rose from the original 8278.62 yuan to 14902.52 yuan. According to the official website, the model has three configurations, the highest configuration is a high-performance version, and the price is 387,900 yuan.
Car insurance policies posted by netizens
According to a Salesman in a Tesla store, if the model, model Y, buys "comprehensive insurance", it includes car damage insurance, 3 million yuan of three insurance, driver's seat insurance, passenger seat insurance, and traffic insurance, a total of 5 types of insurance, with a total amount of about 10,827 yuan. The employee said that the premium for the same model insurance was about 8,000 yuan. When the specific amount needs to be delivered to the vehicle, the owner information can be provided to calculate the most accurate quotation.
The reporter checked the same model posted by netizens before, paid insurance in different regions, and found that most of the premiums in the commercial insurance part were around 9500 yuan.
In response to the problem of rising premiums raised by netizens, Tesla's official customer service said that this is caused by the increase in car damage insurance in vehicle commercial insurance after the New Deal.
Previously, the China Association of Actuaries issued the "Explanation on the Adjustment of the Calculation and Adjustment of the Benchmark Pure Risk Premium Table for The Exclusive Products of New Energy Vehicle Commercial Insurance". Industry experts believe that overall, the benchmark premiums of the three insurances and car damage insurance of new energy vehicles are about 0.8% lower than 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.
After the New Deal, the scope of new energy vehicle protection is wider
On December 14, the official website of the China Insurance Industry Association released the Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance of New Energy Vehicles (Trial Implementation) (hereinafter referred to as the "Clauses").
In terms of insurance liability, the Clause not only provides protection for the "three electricities" (that is, battery, motor and electronic control) system of new energy vehicles, but also further clarifies the use process of new energy vehicles, comprehensively covering the use scenarios of new energy vehicles driving, parking, charging and operation, such as accidents caused by external risks such as self-service charging and power grid failures. In addition to the body, the battery and energy storage system, motor and drive system, other control systems and all other factory equipment of the new energy vehicle are included in the insurance coverage, and the three main insurances clearly include the accident including vehicle fire and combustion.
In the development of 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.
At the same time, the "Clause" also defines the guaranteed model: using a new power system, cars that are driven entirely or mainly by new energy sources, including plug-in hybrid (including range extender) vehicles, pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles, can be insured.
For new energy vehicle owners who have already insured traditional car insurance, the protection content will not be automatically upgraded to a new protection plan. That is to say, the car owner waits until the expiration of the previous car insurance protection period, and then insures the new energy vehicle insurance, or you can choose to re-purchase the new energy car insurance after surrendering, but the owner needs to avoid letting the vehicle "out of insurance" on the road.
In this regard, many consumers told reporters that the overall floating range of insurance costs is acceptable within a thousand yuan, and welcomed the expansion of the scope of protection.
Beijing resident Ms. Wang plans to buy new energy vehicles in the near future, she told reporters that if the insurance cost of a certain model rises too much, it will fully consider the cost performance when purchasing, "After all, many people who buy new energy vehicles, the figure is to save the cost of the car."
The high payout ratio may be one of the main reasons for the increase in premiums
For the adjustment of premiums after the New Deal, some insiders believe that the main reason for the price increase is the high loss rate and the expansion of the scope of protection for new energy vehicles.
"Like Tesla, which has the most severe price increase on the Internet, it has more electronic components, and after an accident, spare parts need to be shipped from the headquarters, the transportation cost is high, and the insurance company pays more money." A car insurance agent told China Economic Weekly. At the same time, he also said that the company has not yet given a unified explanation for this.
The high payout ratio has always been a problem plaguing the new energy automobile industry. The payout rate is the percentage of claims expenses and premium income in a specific period, which can be simply expressed as: the payout rate = (claims expense/ premium income) × 100%.
The agent said that after the adjustment, the scope of protection was expanded, and the "three electricity" system was guaranteed, which was also one of the reasons for the price increase. In simple terms, "although the premium is more expensive, the coverage is greater."
Yu Ze, president of PICC Property & Casualty Insurance, said at the 2021 interim results conference that the loss rate of new energy vehicles is higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles, which is largely due to the fact that the frequency of insurance of new energy vehicles is higher than that of traditional fuel vehicles.
The agent also pointed to the problem of the price of batteries for electric vehicles. "Many models of batteries are on the chassis of the vehicle, it is easy to bump when driving, once a collision occurs, for safety reasons, it is generally necessary to scrap and replace with a new one, and the price is expensive."
The reporter learned in an automobile forum that taking Tesla Model 3 as an example, the cost of replacing the battery is very expensive, the cost is about 106,000 yuan, while the price of Tesla Model 3 is 265,740-419,800 yuan, which costs more than one-third of the vehicle.
Previously, accidents unique to new energy vehicles such as battery bumps were often denied by insurance companies. After entering the era of exclusive insurance for new energy vehicles, new energy vehicle owners will have a basis for claims for core components such as batteries.
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