According to Tianyancha data, Tesla Insurance Broker (China) Co., Ltd. was recently established with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. Its business scope includes insurance brokerage services, and its legal representative and chairman are Zhu Xiaotong, the President of Tesla China.
Prior to this, an insurance brokerage company under Tesla had been deregistered. Tesla established Tesla Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. in August 2020, but the company's insurance brokerage business has yet to receive approval and was deregistered in April of this year.
Industry insiders believe that as other new energy vehicle companies enter the insurance industry, Tesla, as a leading company, will not give up the insurance market. It is normal for car companies to enter the insurance industry. When car manufacturers reach a certain scale, they will have the idea of connecting upstream and downstream and expanding their business into more segmented fields. New energy vehicle companies are entering the insurance industry one after another, hoping to improve their competitiveness by controlling costs, optimizing services, and innovating products.
With the significant increase in sales of new energy vehicles, new energy vehicle insurance also has enormous market potential. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of June 2024, the total number of new energy vehicles in China reached 24.72 million. In the first half of the year, 4.397 million new energy vehicles were newly registered, a year-on-year increase of 39.41%, reaching a historic high.
In recent years, new energy vehicle companies such as BYD, NIO, and Xiaopeng have successively expanded their presence in the insurance industry, especially BYD Insurance, which has launched new energy vehicle insurance business in some provinces.
In May of this year, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration of China issued a reply approving BYD Insurance to use nationally unified compulsory traffic insurance clauses, basic insurance rates, and corresponding rate fluctuation coefficients in Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong (excluding Qingdao), Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Shaanxi, and Shenzhen regions. In the same month, BYD Insurance issued its first policy with a premium of 3900 yuan.
In the new energy vehicle insurance market, there has always been a development dilemma of "car owners shouting expensive, insurance companies shouting losses": on the one hand, it is difficult and expensive for new energy car owners to purchase insurance, and some regions and insurance companies refuse to purchase new energy vehicle insurance; On the one hand, new energy vehicles have a high frequency of accidents and high compensation costs, resulting in most insurance companies underwriting losses.
The "Shouzheng Innovation 2024 New Energy Vehicle Insurance Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") jointly released by Tencent Research Institute and Peking University Digital Finance Research Center shows that there are significant differences between new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles in core hardware, software, production processes, sales channels, and complementary products. These differences not only bring new risk exposures, but also disrupt the interaction mode of the insurance ecosystem.
The report points out that although the "exclusive policy for new energy vehicle insurance" partially covers the new risks of new energy vehicles and enhances risk protection capabilities, there are still problems such as low precision in premium pricing, unclear definition of responsibilities in intelligent connected technology and battery swapping modes. The problems of high premiums, difficult renewals, high accident rates, and high claims ratios are still prominent. How to optimize car insurance products through the reshaping and integration of the insurance ecosystem has become a common expectation of users, insurance companies, car companies, and other parties.
The report suggests further leveraging the role of market entities and optimizing the pricing mechanism of car insurance. At the same time, we will strengthen the promotion of digital transformation in the insurance industry, promote sharing and cooperation, and cultivate a new ecosystem for new energy vehicle insurance. In addition, improving the intelligent car insurance system will provide guarantees for the development of autonomous driving technology in China.