Original title: How to solve the pricing problem of new energy vehicle insurance when car owners call for high prices and insurance companies call for losses?

Reporter Wang Shujuan reports from Shanghai

"Why is the premium of Xiaomi Automobile more than 200000 yuan, but close to that of fuel vehicles more than 500000 yuan?".

How to solve the "three high" problem of high premium, high accident rate and high loss rate? Relevant departments have successively issued guidance policies, and the insurance industry is also accelerating the exploration of optimization paths and cracking models.

Why do the two sides of new energy vehicle insurance "cry out"?

Recently, the insurance price of Xiaomi's new SU7 has aroused extensive discussion. The first year premium of this auto insurance is between 6000 yuan and 9000 yuan, which is much higher than that of fuel vehicles at the same price. In fact, it is an indisputable fact that the premium of new energy vehicles is higher than that of fuel vehicles.

According to the data of the national monitoring and management platform for new energy vehicles, the overall premium scale of new energy vehicles in 2022 will be about 65 billion yuan, and the average premium of new energy vehicle insurance policy will be 4139 yuan, 81% higher than that of fuel vehicles.

On the one hand, the owner shouts "expensive", and on the other hand, the insurance company shouts "loss". The trouble for insurance companies is that consumers feel that new energy vehicle insurance has become very expensive, but insurance companies are still losing money.

The reason is that the new energy vehicle insurance has a high accident rate and high loss rate. Yu Ze, president of PICC Property and Casualty Insurance, pointed out that the compensation rate of new energy vehicle insurance in the whole industry was more than 10 percentage points higher than that of fuel vehicles.

Gu Yue, the chairman of Taibao Property Insurance, said that the accident rate of new energy vehicles was twice as high as that of fuel vehicles. The main reasons were: first, the intelligent integration of new energy vehicles was high; Second, the body structure of new energy vehicles is different; Third, the driving behavior of new energy vehicles is completely different from that of fuel vehicles; Fourth, social factors. Many new energy vehicles are used as commercial vehicles.

Shenwan Hongyuan's report pointed out that the average loss ratio of new energy automobile insurance was close to 85%, and most insurance companies' new energy automobile insurance business was at the edge of the profit and loss line, so the pressure of loss was great. Taking car damage insurance as an example, the accident rate of the household car with the highest proportion of new energy vehicles is as high as 30%, significantly higher than the data of 19% for fuel vehicles.

The odd ratio results released by China Insurance Research Group show that the average odd ratio of single battery pack of new energy vehicles reaches 51.19%. The higher the zero to zero ratio, the higher the maintenance cost.

Zhang Yiwen, the head of Ant Life Insurance's new energy auto insurance business, said that the top three insurance companies in the new energy auto insurance business are losing money at present. It can be seen that the pricing strategy of the entire industry is "follow the car", or follow the traditional model of fuel vehicles in the past. The high maintenance cost of new energy vehicles due to the single maintenance channel and imperfect maintenance standards is also one of the reasons for the "three high" dilemma of new energy vehicle insurance.

Premium of "good car owners" is expected to decline

By the end of 2023, the number of new energy vehicles in China will reach 20.41 million. In the first quarter of 2024, the sales of new energy vehicles continued to maintain a good momentum, with a year-on-year growth of 31.8%. While the development potential of the new energy vehicle insurance market is huge, how to solve the "three high" problem? How to improve the deviation between price and risk?

All parties are actively exploring how to "knock down" the rate of new energy vehicle insurance. Industry insiders believe that the existence of "data islands" between auto companies and insurance companies is one of the core issues behind the current development dilemma of new energy auto insurance. With the emergence of a more precise pricing model, the premium of "good car owners" is expected to decline.

It is reported that several insurance companies, such as PICC Property&Casualty, Ping An Property&Casualty, and Pacific Property&Casualty, have cooperated with the Internet insurance agency platform "Ant Insurance" to jointly develop and launch the "joint pricing" technology for auto insurance. Based on the "argot" of the trusted privacy computing technology framework, this technology can achieve more accurate vehicle insurance pricing from the two dimensions of "car" and "people". While improving the operating efficiency of insurance companies, it also makes it cheaper for drivers with good driving habits to buy insurance.

Industry insiders told reporters that the precise pricing of new energy vehicle insurance is mainly lack of big data support, especially the driver's driving behavior, vehicle accidents and other data can directly affect the premium rate calculation.

"But in fact, a car can't be out of danger. In addition to having a lot to do with the car, it also has a lot to do with the driver. So we need to do more exploration on the pricing model, promote the accurate improvement of new energy vehicle insurance pricing, and finally form a new energy vehicle with lower model risk, better driving behavior, and lower risk can enjoy a lower premium price." Zhang Yiwen said.

Wang Xiangnan, deputy director of the Insurance and Economic Development Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that the lack of "accurate pricing capability" is the main reason for the loss dilemma of new energy vehicle insurance. Previously, the pricing of auto insurance was more based on the factors of cars, such as model, age, percentage of odd cars, hedge ratio, etc. However, it is often human factors that determine whether risks occur, such as the driving skills and habits of the owner.

Jiang Minglong, the person in charge of Ant Insurance's auto insurance business, told reporters that the "joint pricing" technology combines the "car factor" and "human factor" to help insurance companies accurately judge risks before giving reasonable quotations. Operation data shows that the auto insurance quotation after "joint pricing" can save hundreds of yuan for car owners on average.

Anana, head of relevant business of CPIC Property Insurance, said that the "joint pricing" technology makes the car insurance risk pricing model more accurate, improves the company's operational efficiency, and allows users with different risk levels to get their own quotes, while users with good driving habits can get cheaper quotes.

More solutions to problems to be explored

To solve the problem, regulators, insurance companies, automobile enterprises and relevant institutions in the industry need to work together.

According to the prediction of Soochow Securities, the premium scale of new energy vehicle insurance will reach 186.5 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for 17.9% of the total premium of vehicle insurance; In 2030, the premium scale will reach 454.1 billion yuan, accounting for 32.1% of the total vehicle insurance premium.

In front of the huge market scale, insurance companies need to actively embrace new technologies and new models, and gradually improve the profitability of new energy vehicle insurance by optimizing pricing mechanisms, improving service quality and other measures.

Zhang Jiyuan, senior manager of the risk management department of Ant Insurance, believes that it is necessary to develop insurance products with different pricing strategies for the performance of new energy vehicles, such as quantifiable insurance and corresponding insurance services based on the combination of driver behavior and vehicle use related data.

At the policy level, it is also increasing. The State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration recently issued the Notice on Promoting the High Quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Insurance (Draft for Comments). Many regulations are closely related to the price of new energy vehicle insurance. For example, calculate and timely adjust the pure risk premium of the new energy commercial auto insurance industry on a regular basis, and optimize the pricing standard of new models; Expand the range of independent pricing coefficient of new energy commercial vehicle insurance to 0.5 to 1.5, and improve the pricing ability of market operators.

The independent pricing coefficient directly affects the premium price. At present, the independent pricing coefficient range of new energy vehicle insurance is 0.65 to 1.35, which is less than the range of 0.5 to 1.5 of traditional vehicle insurance, which limits insurance companies to fully distinguish risks through pricing.

Wang Xiangnan believes that with the support of industrial policies, the introduction of new technologies such as "joint pricing" of auto insurance can improve the problem of auto insurance losses from the source, and promote the marketization of commercial auto insurance rates and the healthy and sustainable development of auto insurance business.