When the existing insurance model can already bring huge profits to themselves, who would be willing to spend money and energy to make consumers profitable?
Author: Liang Zhihao
The recent Tesla and Musk can be described as unlimited scenery, thanks to the global car rental giant Hertz (Hertz) a 100,000 Model 3 super order, Tesla's stock price ushered in a wave of soaring, the total market value is more than 1,000 billion US dollars, higher than Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, General Motors and other 11 veteran car companies combined market value is higher!
Because Musk's own assets are directly linked to Tesla's market value, his personal wealth has instantly soared to $289 billion, becoming the latest richest man in the world. And Tesla from a market value of $100 billion, rose to a market value of $1,000 billion, only 21 months, they want to revolutionize the life of fuel vehicles, but it is really not a joke.
But before the death of the gas car, Tesla must first defeat another opponent, that is, car insurance that has been standing for many years.
Musk publicly complained about car insurance
At the 2021 Tesla shareholders' meeting held some time ago, Musk publicly stated that "the regulation of insurance is too crazy, it exists as if it is specifically designed to cause trouble for people", and he further said that Tesla will launch a new type of car insurance with Texas later.
As the new world's richest man, every word Musk says must have a purpose, do you think he is just a whim, hot-headed and spit on the car insurance system? In fact, Tesla has already laid out the situation. Through enterprise inquiries, we can find that as early as August 2020, Tesla Hong Kong quietly established Tesla Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd. with a capital of 50 million yuan.
It can be said that after the sales volume is large enough and the capital is enough, Tesla has long wanted to firmly grasp the big cake of car insurance in its own hands. After all, even if it only serves the models sold by itself, the car insurance business can bring considerable and sustainable profit growth points to Tesla every year.
What's different about Tesla car insurance?
Traditional auto insurance through countless years of development, the current model has been basically solidified, even if some time ago the country introduced a car insurance reform policy, but for the auto insurance industry as a whole has not undergone any qualitative changes. Especially in terms of premiums, it is often the hardest hit area for drivers to complain about.
With the popularity of new energy vehicles, due to the uncertainty of new things, pure electric models such as Tesla tend to be higher than ordinary models in terms of premiums, so the call for the introduction of special insurance for new energy vehicles is also getting higher and higher.
In addition, traditional car insurance is often based on the insurance records of the insured vehicle to determine the future premium, such an assessment method actually has greater limitations, but for traditional fuel vehicles, this is also a way out of the way.
Tesla wants to launch a car insurance is a new thing - UBI car insurance (Usage-Based Insurance). Unlike traditional car insurance, which determines the premium through analysis by computer or actuary, UBI car insurance "tailors" the premium by collecting information such as the driving status of the vehicle and the driver's driving style, and at the same time, when the vehicle is in a state of suspension, the premium can also be reduced and returned to the consumer on a daily basis. It is understood that the same car and driver, in an ideal state, the use of UBI car insurance can save up to 30% of the premium than the use of traditional car insurance.
For example, Zhang San and Li Si are the owners of Tesla Model 3, everyone has not been in danger, but Zhang San not only drives to and from work every day, but also often accelerates, changes direction, brakes or speeds, while Li Si may only drive on weekends, and has good driving habits, then under the UBI insurance model, Li Si's premium may be much less than Zhang San.
With the incentive of premiums, the driver's driving habits can also be invisibly constrained, which will undoubtedly play a further role in promoting the reduction of the vehicle's insurance rate.
Although intelligent electric vehicles like Tesla are easier to monitor driving habits, it is not difficult for traditional fuel vehicles to achieve UBI car insurance. As early as the previous us car insurance brands launched similar insurance, through the OBD interface to monitor the user's driving habits in half a year, and for the subsequent premium update to develop a more favorable policy.
There is great resistance to domestic promotion
However, it is good to have ideas, and this new form of car insurance is a big blessing for the majority of drivers, but for Tesla, it seems that it is not a simple thing to really promote the landing of UBI insurance in China, in addition to the big problem of qualifications, after obtaining driver data, how to determine the driver's technology through scientific and effective analysis is also a problem.
Secondly, a large amount of driver data falls into the hands of Tesla, which will also trigger public and even national concerns about safety and privacy. Therefore, I think that in the short term, Tesla may be difficult to implement its own UBI car insurance in the Chinese market. For the traditional insurance industry, they also obviously lack the motivation to turn to UBI car insurance, after all, in the case of the existing insurance model can already bring huge profits to themselves, who will be willing to spend money and energy to make consumers profitable?
Today's topic
Should insurance be reformed now?
Feel free to leave a message in the comment area