New energy vehicle companies "fall in love" with insurance, what is the intention of frequently "involving insurance"?

New energy vehicle companies frequently cut into the insurance track, and car companies "falling in love" with insurance has become a new trend. On January 26, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily combed and found that after Tesla, Xiaopeng and many other new energy vehicle companies entered the bureau, Weilai also took a substantial step towards the insurance license, and its insurance brokerage co., LTD. completed the industrial and commercial registration.

However, it is not easy to really pocket the license. According to the requirements of insurance intermediaries "first license and then certificate", it is not only necessary to obtain a license, but also to obtain a regulatory business license in the future before operating insurance business. In addition, the complexity of business landing and the threshold of management ability have also become "stumbling blocks" on the road to the realization of the insurance dream of new energy vehicle companies.

New energy vehicle companies frequently bet on insurance intermediary licenses

Compared with the public statement that it is evaluating the matter after the exclusive clause of new energy vehicle insurance is landed, Weilai, which registered an insurance brokerage company at the beginning of 2022, can be described as a "fast" layout.

On January 26, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that the national enterprise credit information publicity system showed that on January 19, Weilai Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. completed industrial and commercial registration with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. It is reported that Weilai is currently the first new energy vehicle company in China to set up an insurance brokerage company.

New energy vehicle companies want to "get together" insurance is not a new thing. As the ownership of new energy vehicles continues to grow, new energy exclusive car insurance is about to come out. Along with this, new energy vehicle companies have laid out and bet on their insurance licenses in advance.

As early as 2018, Xiaopeng Automobile has been approved to carry out automobile insurance agency business, and specially established Guangzhou Xiaopeng Automobile Insurance Agency Company. In August 2020, Tesla registered Tesla Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd. in Shanghai. In addition, other domestic new energy vehicle companies also have relevant intentions, and some insiders told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that BYD is also preparing an insurance agency company.

In recent years, the new energy automobile industry has made rapid progress. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, by the third quarter of 2021, the number of new energy vehicles in the mainland has reached 6.78 million. According to the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", by 2025, the sales volume of new energy vehicles will reach about 20% of the total sales of new vehicles.

The rapid growth of the number of new energy vehicles contains a huge premium market. For the reasons for the entry of new energy vehicle companies into the auto insurance market, Zhou Lijun, president of the E-Car Research Institute, concluded: "First, the new energy vehicle market is very large, second, the new energy vehicle companies themselves have technical advantages, and third, in terms of policy, compared with ten years ago, they are more and more open. Zhou Lijun believes that "the time and place are favorable" will soon be formed. Car companies represented by new energy vehicles take the lead in layout, and with the improvement of the degree of intelligence, other car companies will also enter the industry track of direct insurance.

In addition to the great market potential of new energy vehicle insurance, car insurance, as the entrance of auto companies directly linking C-end users, can not only open up the whole life cycle of car owners, but also provide new possibilities for business growth. Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of Cheche Technology, said that auto insurance has become a super entrance for auto companies to control car owners' services, reshaping the relationship between the two, from sales to user life cycle management. In this regard, car companies can expand automotive aftermarket business such as automobile maintenance, claims repair, and auto finance, and become the main provider of integrated services for consumer cars.

New energy vehicle companies join to promote innovation, but also to stop losses?

At the end of 2021, the exclusive clause of new energy was officially released, and the new energy exclusive car insurance broke through the pain points, which accelerated the pace of reshaping the pattern of the new energy industry.

Users have previously had a strong call for direct sales insurance for new energy vehicle companies, and now they are "more than enough". In the first three quarters of 2021, the survey data of the E-Car Research Institute showed that the proportion of Chinese auto insurance users who were willing to purchase car insurance business directly operated by car companies was as high as 66.44%. Among them, car companies have a deeper understanding and operational ability of the supply chain. In addition, the Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that tesla's UBI car insurance implemented abroad can be accurately priced, and the premium is "thousands of faces", rather than letting the owners "be averaged".

In January 2022, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Federation, suggested that car companies should establish their own insurance varieties.

In Zhang Lei's view, the advantages of car companies entering the auto insurance market are obvious, including the extension of the service chain of car companies, which is expected to dominate the car comprehensive service market; with car insurance as the service grasp, car companies will actively expand automotive ecological services; the auto industry intelligently changes the business logic of auto insurance and accelerates auto insurance innovation, and new energy vehicles will be the best carrier for auto insurance innovation.

In the era of new energy vehicles, the relationship between people, vehicles and factories is being reconstructed. In the traditional model, car companies often only undertake automobile production and manufacturing tasks, delivery, maintenance, value-added services are undertaken by dealers, and the connection between car companies and users is weak. Under the existing model, car companies are penetrating the entire chain of automotive industry value and becoming the main provider of integrated services for consumer cars. In this regard, Zhang Lei said that first of all, new energy vehicle companies to force the car insurance business, which will help reshape the relationship between car companies and users. Secondly, the industrial chain of new energy vehicle companies is also longer. Finally, car companies are committed to car insurance, which helps to break down data islands and promote auto insurance innovation.

From 2011 to 2020, mainland auto insurance premium income continued to grow and exceeded 800 billion yuan, but the industry was deeply challenged by the difficulty of premium growth. Industry insiders said that the entry of car companies can better make up for the current situation of operating losses in the industry.

As early as before the "insurance" of new energy vehicle companies, some traditional car companies have already circled the territory. Dongfeng Motor Group, GAC Group and BAIC Group have established or jointly established insurance brokerage companies. In 2011, GAC Group, as the controlling shareholder, initiated the establishment of Zhongcheng Insurance; in 2012, FAW Group established Xinan Insurance; and in 2015, SAIC Motor Group established SAIC Motor Insurance Sales Company. Geely's subsidiary, eBao Insurance Agency Limited, was officially licensed as an insurance agent in 2018. In 2021, Geely's second cross-border insurance industry invested in Hezhong Property & Casualty Insurance.

However, not all car companies can bring Ganlin to the stake. After Geely's stake, the profit of United Property Insurance fell again. The solvency report shows that in 2021, the company's cumulative net loss reached 92.2438 million yuan, compared with a loss of 50.8112 million yuan in 2020.

The license plate is only a "stepping stone", and the entry needs to be "passed"

Car companies are menacing, but the license plate is only a "stepping stone", and the new forces enter the car insurance market and need to "pass the customs".

Industry insiders told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that if you want to sell insurance, for the newly established insurance brokerage company, you must obtain a "regulatory license". Weilai obviously has to pass the regulatory threshold of "first license and then certificate". According to the Implementation Measures for the Administrative Licensing and Filing of Insurance Intermediaries issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in November 2021, if the applicant wants to obtain a license to operate insurance brokerage business, he or she must have a good financial position, the ability to invest abroad with its own funds, the capital contribution funds are own, true and legal, and cannot use bank loans and various forms of non-owned funds to invest in a number of hard indicators.

In addition to obtaining key licenses, in order to achieve true self-operation, the complexity of business landing and management capabilities are also the "checkpoints" that new energy vehicle companies need to pass. For example, car companies layout car insurance business, but also face service network, system construction and other challenges.

Zhang Lei believes that a major difficulty for new energy vehicle companies to do car insurance is the establishment and management of service networks. At present, the digitization process of mainland auto insurance is still very shallow, and key links such as localization of orders, settlement services, and push repair need to continue to expand and sink with the scope of the car company service market. Secondly, in order to ensure the user experience, it is necessary to cooperate with a large number of offline service outlets or build a huge service network system, which has a high time cost and capital cost.

New energy vehicle companies entering the auto insurance market also face the problem of system construction. Zhang Lei said that in order to carry out business in the car machine and mobile terminal, it is necessary to have a mature online system, but different provinces and cities have different company interfaces, different underwriting rules, docking is not easy, and only a few practitioners in the country have the above capabilities.

In addition, although more accurate and personalized car insurance pricing touches the pain points of the market. Industry insiders told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that the sale of insurance by new energy vehicle companies involves vehicle data, that is, user privacy, which leads to the most core issues, such as how to use and manage the owner's information data, and the technology in this area is still in the process of testing the water or exploring.

"At present, the main battlefield of car companies is in full swing, but also to solve the supply chain security and other issues, in the face of the opportunity of new energy vehicle insurance, car companies have to consider team building, input and output, often easy to cause more than enough and insufficient strength situation?." Zhang Lei added.

Obviously, car companies have made efforts to develop car insurance business and started to lay out, but they still face problems such as high research and development costs of car insurance systems, difficulties in docking insurance companies, long construction period of claims services, and difficulty in obtaining business qualification licenses. As Buffett once said in Berkshire Hathaway about Tesla's entry into the insurance business, it is as difficult for car companies to carry out insurance business as insurance companies to make cars.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Chen Tingting Hu Yongxin