Tesla's bet on auto insurance may become a new blue ocean in the industry
2024-08-15
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The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System shows that Tesla Insurance Brokerage (China) Co., Ltd. was established on July 30 with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. The picture shows a Tesla Experience Center in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
In addition to making and selling cars, Tesla has a new layout in China.
The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System shows that Tesla Insurance Brokers (China) Co., Ltd. was established on July 30 with a registered capital of 50 million yuan. It is wholly owned by Tesla Insurance Services Co., Ltd. and its legal representative and chairman is Zhu Xiaotong, senior vice president of Tesla's automotive business.
As for Tesla's plans for insurance brokerage business and whether it plans to obtain an insurance license in the next step, Tesla has not responded as of press time.
It should be noted that in 2020, Tesla Motors Hong Kong established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Tesla Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd., in the mainland market, which mainly engaged in insurance brokerage business; however, the company has never obtained regulatory approval and was deregistered in April this year.
The reporter noticed that compared with the previous layout, there are two changes in Tesla's new insurance business layout - one is the addition of "China" in the name, and the other is that the company type has changed from wholly owned by Hong Kong and Taiwan legal persons to wholly foreign-owned, and the shareholder has changed from "Tesla Motors Hong Kong" to "Tesla Insurance Services Co., Ltd."
"Less than four months after the previous company was deregistered, Tesla's new insurance brokerage company has completed registration. This high efficiency shows that Tesla seems determined to win in the auto insurance industry," auto industry analyst Liu Zhichao told reporters.
He pointed out that the reason why Tesla is so concerned about the auto insurance industry is that for car companies, selling auto insurance can not only tap the market's value potential, save risk management costs and intermediary fees, and improve profitability; it can also use the insurance business to enhance connections with users, provide users with a one-stop service experience, and ultimately achieve a closed service loop.
The White Paper on Co-building the Ecosystem of New Energy Vehicle Insurance in China also points out that as the first service product that consumers come into contact with after buying a car, auto insurance can be used as a gateway to serve car owners due to its rigid demand and stickiness. In the future, vehicle delivery will only be the starting point for car companies to create value. With auto insurance as a service starting point, car companies can develop more service systems such as the post-car ecosystem and car owner rights.
In fact, as early as April 2019, Tesla acquired the insurance brokerage license in the United States through the acquisition of Markel, and then took the lead in launching auto insurance services in California. Tesla CEO Elon Musk once publicly stated: "Tesla will launch cheaper, better, and even 'revolutionary' auto insurance services."
"How customers drive their cars will have an impact on the insurance rates they get. Tesla Insurance will give lower discounts to owners who use Autopilot because their accident rates are significantly reduced," Elon Musk added.
In China, the latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Security show that by the end of June this year, the number of new energy vehicles in China reached 24.72 million. In the first half of this year, 4.397 million new energy vehicles were registered, a year-on-year increase of 39.41%, setting a new record. Such a rapid development trend has also made the new energy vehicle insurance market a "battlefield".
After statistics, the reporter found that in addition to Tesla, Ideal Auto, NIO and other car companies have obtained insurance brokerage licenses; in March this year, BMW (China) Insurance Brokerage Co., Ltd. opened for business; on May 6 this year, the State Financial Regulatory Administration made a public response to Shenzhen BYD Property Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "BYD P&C")'s request for approval of compulsory motor vehicle traffic accident liability insurance terms and rates, and agreed that BYD P&C Insurance would use the national unified compulsory traffic accident liability insurance terms, basic insurance rates and corresponding rate floating coefficients in Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong (excluding Qingdao), Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Shenzhen.
For car companies, holding insurance broker licenses and insurance licenses can form a variety of cooperation methods. "On the one hand, car companies with insurance licenses can independently design insurance products, or cooperate with specific insurance companies to launch insurance plans specifically for their own vehicles." Liu Zhichao analyzed, "On the other hand, car companies usually have sales networks all over the country, which can provide strong support for the coverage of their insurance business."
Although new energy vehicle companies represented by Tesla have invested heavily in the field of auto insurance, these car companies still face many tests and challenges when crossing borders.
Liu Zhichao pointed out that first of all, if car companies want to carry out auto insurance business, they must obtain an operating license. However, taking Tesla as an example, it is not easy to successfully obtain a license. The progress of obtaining the license determines the speed at which the car company enters the auto insurance industry.
At the same time, auto insurance of auto companies is often sold through direct sales. This requires auto companies to have a fully functional online system. To build such a system, it must invest a lot of construction costs and take a long time. All these put forward certain requirements for the overall development of auto companies.
"Whether it is Tesla or other car companies, they all understand that it is easy to gain a foothold in the auto insurance field, but it is difficult to make a profit," Liu Zhichao concluded. "It is undeniable that auto insurance is a blue ocean in the current auto industry, but to explore the rich mines in the blue ocean, it requires not only the efforts of a single auto company, but also the further maturity and development of the entire auto industry."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Network reporter Zhang Zhenqi wrote and photographed Source: China Youth Daily
Source: China Youth Daily Travel Weekly
