CAN BYD enter the auto insurance market Can it defeat insurance companies to impact the king of new energy auto insurance?

Financial Associated Press (Beijing, reporter Yang Rui) news, the new war situation of new energy vehicle insurance has begun.

Recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision officially approved the "BYD Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd.", AND's ambition to enter insurance is self-evident. Previously, BYD had also released recruitment information for a number of insurance positions, including vice president, operation director, compliance director, compliance manager, financial director, product manager, insurance claims specialist and other positions of insurance brokerage companies.

Entering the insurance intermediary license, there are Tesla and Weilai in the front, and BYD in the back, and the target is to point to new energy vehicle insurance. A senior person in the property insurance industry analyzed the reporter of the Financial Associated Press, "BYD's layout of brokerage licenses is more worthy of attention than Weilai, because BYD is the intersection of traditional car companies and new energy car companies." This means that both new energy vehicle companies and traditional car companies are looking forward to winning their own licenses to achieve the opening of sales models and car insurance service packages, and then create a closed loop of services. ”

Car companies enter the market Challenges and opportunities coexist

In January, WEILAI just announced the establishment of an insurance brokerage company, and BYD's insurance brokerage company is on the string.

The background of the industry behind it is that on December 27, 2021, the "Exclusive Clauses for Commercial Insurance for New Energy Vehicles of the China Insurance Industry Association (Trial)" was officially launched, requiring all new energy vehicles to be insured with new energy vehicle insurance.

Correspondingly, new energy vehicle companies have laid out and bet on their insurance brokerage licenses in advance. As early as August 2020, Tesla established an insurance brokerage company in Shanghai.

Ping An Securities Research Report analyzed that with the development of new energy vehicles and the release of the "Exclusive Terms", new energy vehicle insurance is expected to become an important growth point in the auto insurance industry. Traditional car companies represented by GUANGZHOU AUTOMOBILE Group and new energy car companies represented by Tesla have all made moves to enter the auto insurance industry. As a leading entrant, Tesla is at the forefront of the industry in the field of auto insurance.

According to the data, from 2013 to 2020, the number of new energy vehicle underwriting continued from 140,000 to 4.92 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 56%; The premium scale of new energy motor insurance increased from 1.16 billion yuan to 24.6 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 46.5%. In the future, with the accelerated expansion of the new energy vehicle market, the market demand for new energy vehicle insurance to be developed is huge.

As a car company that entered the game this time, BYD has aimed at the huge potential of the new energy vehicle market since the launch of the first dual-mode electric vehicle in 2008, and has made great plans. By January 2019, BYD's sales of new energy vehicles surpassed its own fuel vehicles for the first time, accounting for 65% of total sales, becoming a typical new energy vehicle company.

According to the Financial Associated Press reporter, BYD's new energy vehicle sales continue to rise, reaching 88,283 units in February, an increase of 752.6% year-on-year.

According to the analysis of Ping An Securities Research Report, new energy vehicle insurance is an important part of the ecological chain of car companies, which helps to give full play to the advantages of car companies in data and technology. New energy vehicles mainly adopt the direct sales model, through direct sales of shopping malls or online sales, car companies and users have close contact, while expanding car maintenance, claims repair, auto finance and other auto aftermarket business.

Compared with traditional insurance companies, the cost and efficiency of obtaining data by car companies is higher, and it is easier to achieve data collection and analysis to the output pricing model, which can achieve accurate pricing, while giving full play to cost advantages, and providing lower premiums. At the same time, the use of data processing insurance generated by automobiles will also greatly improve the speed of claim processing and shorten the claim processing cycle. The dual advantages in price and experience help attract more consumers to apply.

The advantages are clear and the challenges are there.

According to the analysis of a large property insurance company, "the challenge of new energy vehicle companies entering the car insurance is still very obvious, first of all, the license plate, the localization of car insurance operation, different products have different pricing and cost policies, and car companies do not have the ability to quickly reserve a large number of product contracts." Secondly, the construction of the service network also requires the accumulation of time. ”

According to the analysis in the "New Energy Car Insurance White Paper", whether it is a century-old traditional car company or a new car-making force, it does not have experience in the car insurance industry, and it is necessary to spend a lot of manpower and financial resources to enter the car insurance track, not to mention that the car sales war is still in full swing and the energy is limited. Therefore, if car companies want to seize the opportunity in the auto insurance market, they also need to complement the advantages of capable service providers and cooperate for win-win results.

The catfish effect may force insurance companies to change

In the PK race of car companies and insurance companies, the advantages and disadvantages are different.

New energy car insurance must be a big cake. According to an industry estimate, assuming that Tesla's sales maintain a compound annual growth rate of 31% until 2030, annual sales can reach 11.52 million by 2030. According to the assumption of the neutral situation, Tesla can achieve a global ownership of 60.46 million vehicles in 2030, if Tesla's insurance product coverage can reach 70%, the average annual premium per vehicle is 4800 yuan, then the car insurance business can achieve revenue of 203.1 billion yuan.

However, the implementation of the data still needs to be tested in practice. Tesla has been laying out since 2016, launching the InsureMyTesla program in Australia and Hong Kong, China, to enter the insurance field through cooperation with insurance companies in the mode of insurance brokerage.

In April 2019, Tesla acquired Markle Corporation of the United States and obtained an insurance brokerage license, mainly engaged in underwriting and selling professional insurance products. In August 2019, Tesla launched an internal insurance plan in California, USA, underwritten by StateNational, with premiums for personal driving records, age, location, etc.

In August 2020, Tesla Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd. landed in Shanghai. In October 2021, Musk announced the launch of a new UBI car insurance product. Taking advantage of direct access to user data, Tesla's self-operated insurance is about 20%-30% lower in price than traditional insurance companies, and can be purchased on a monthly basis.

According to CNBC data, Tesla's insurance business has covered five states, including Arizona and Ohio, and Tesla can insure 300,000 cars by 2025. However, Tesla has not disclosed its revenue in the insurance business.

Taking the car insurance package of "Weilai Automobile" as an example, Weilai Automobile has provided after-sales maintenance, scratch paint repair, door-to-door service, maintenance and other services for car owners, and users can complete from daily maintenance to maintenance to peripheral product purchase and other behaviors on the Weilai Automobile app after insurance.

According to a person from a medium-sized property insurance company, "For insurance companies, under the advantages of sufficient experience and channel network, data and pricing capabilities, as well as risk management capabilities, may be more prominent." Of course, because the compensation rate of new energy vehicles is higher than that of traditional motor vehicles, the profit space of insurance companies is small, and the enthusiasm for underwriting is not high. ”

According to the above research report analysis, for new energy vehicle companies, in the highly concentrated auto insurance market, it is necessary to form differentiated advantages in pricing, service and other aspects to get a piece of the pie. The entry of new energy vehicle companies has triggered a catfish effect, forcing traditional insurance companies to accelerate innovation.

However, under the huge blue ocean market, the new energy vehicle insurance market is still in the early stage of development. The above-mentioned person believes that "new energy vehicle insurance is an emerging market that the insurance industry must seize." ”

Zhang Lei, CEO of Car Technology, told the Financial Associated Press that the current digital process of mainland car insurance is relatively shallow, in order to provide users with high-quality claims, maintenance, and car owner services, car companies are required to cooperate with a large number of offline service outlets or build a huge service network system, which will require a lot of time and capital costs. In addition, it is also difficult to build a mature online system, "under normal circumstances, there are differences in the interface and underwriting rules of different companies in different provinces and cities, and it is difficult to achieve docking with a large number of systems in a short period of time."

He also said that the era of new energy vehicles is the era of users returning to car companies, but also the era of reshaping car insurance products, and cars will use their own technology accumulation and service network to help new energy companies share the opportunities and dividends of the development of "new energy car insurance".