my country's automobile exports continue to soar, and supporting service systems, including automobile insurance, are becoming increasingly urgent to go to sea.

In the first half of 2026, my country's automobile exports were 5.096 million units, a year-on-year increase of 65.3%, of which new energy exports were 2.355 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times; in June, it exported 1.037 million units in a single month, a year-on-year increase of 75.1%. For the first time, my country's automobile exports exceeded the million mark, marking that the overseas market development of domestic automobiles has reached a new level.

As automobiles go overseas and upgrade from product exports to industrial chains and service systems, automobile insurance has become a key link in ensuring overseas operations. As Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said, at present, the automobile industry needs professional protection from the insurance industry more than ever before.

Auto insurance goes out to sea

Must-answer questions for industrial upgrading

my country's automobile exports have been rising year after year, and the continued expansion of overseas vehicle ownership has opened up a huge incremental market for automobile insurance to go abroad.

Wei Ran, founder of insurance industry expert A6 Studio, said in an interview with a reporter from "China Automobile News" that reviewing the century-old development history of the global automobile industry, and in the process of globalization of Japanese, Korean, German and American automobile companies, local insurance institutions will simultaneously follow up supporting services. The coordinated layout of vehicle manufacturing and finance and insurance is a mature path that has been repeatedly verified in the global market.

Taking BBA's early entry into the China market as an example, German insurance companies and vehicle inspection and risk control technology service providers simultaneously launched into the domestic market. Relying on vehicle factory data and maintenance accident databases to build a localized risk control and claims system, insurance is deeply bound to the automobile industry to achieve simultaneous expansion.

Compared with this mature development template, China's new energy vehicles are now on the global track, and the scale of vehicle exports continues to rise. Domestic auto insurance supporting facilities are no longer a choice for enterprises, but a must-answer question that needs to be implemented and laid out in advance.

Wei Ran believes that relying on the complete risk data reserve of new energy vehicles, my country already has the soil for the development concept of "big auto insurance" to take root. Different from the traditional single model where auto insurance is only responsible for after-the-fact compensation, domestic insurance companies can deeply intervene in insurance risk control from the vehicle development and design stage.

For new energy vehicles, insurance companies can sort out issues such as battery materials and chemical characteristics, battery structural protection defects, and flammable parts of the body based on accumulated accident claims data over the years, and provide feedback to vehicle companies to optimize vehicle design. Reduce the probability of vehicle accidents at the source, advance risk management and control into the production and manufacturing process, and form differentiated competitiveness that is different from traditional overseas insurance.

Yang Zhiyong, the relevant person in charge of the insurance business of a certain automobile company, also believes that automobile insurance must "go global". However, at present, domestic automobile insurance has not yet formed a unified and standardized mature implementation path, and major property insurance companies and automobile companies are still exploring and adapting their own resources. Cooperation model.

In particular, the core data dominance of new energy vehicle intelligent networking equipment and "three electric power" systems is in the hands of automobile companies. It is difficult for insurance institutions to independently develop the overseas terminal automobile insurance market without the offline stores of the main engine factory, vehicle traffic, and underlying vehicle data. The binding development of the two is an objective industrial reality.

The state continues to introduce policies to promote the global layout of new energy vehicles, and the regulatory level is also clearly encouraging domestic insurance institutions to simultaneously deploy supporting services to overseas markets to avoid insufficient insurance supply and insurance difficulties in overseas markets that restrict terminal sales of China automobiles. Driven by the dual needs of the industry and policy orientation, the broad market space for automobile insurance to go abroad has clearly emerged.

Insurance companies go out to sea

Need to supplement all-round territorial capabilities

Under the vast blue sea, domestic insurance institutions still face many practical challenges that are difficult to resolve in the short term when deploying auto insurance to sea. Wei Ran bluntly said that the domestic auto insurance business model cannot be directly replicated to overseas markets. The transportation regulations, insurance supervision, and new energy risk control requirements of various countries are completely independent. If you want to implement localized insurance services, the primary problem is to build an international professional compliance team to understand the target market's capital management, tax rules, insurance access terms, and solve cross-border financial problems such as overseas capital injection and profit return. This is a basic condition that most small and medium-sized insurance companies currently do not have.

The entry thresholds for insurance licenses and fund supervision standards vary widely in different countries. Overseas operations involve a series of complex compliance requirements such as cross-border capital transfers, local tax declarations, and preparation of metal land storage. Without a professional international talent team, insurance will not be able to go out to sea.

The second is localized insurance product research and development capabilities. Domestic auto insurance products are designed based on local road conditions, driving habits, and vehicle risk characteristics, and it is completely impossible to directly copy them to overseas markets. Climates and road conditions in different regions will change the core risks of new energy vehicles. High-salt environments along the coast accelerate battery shell corrosion, inland high temperatures increase the risk of thermal runaway, high latitudes and severe cold reduce battery driving and increase the probability of failure. Battery loss and spontaneous combustion in different scenarios The differences are obvious; at the same time, car owners in various countries have their own characteristics. Insurance companies must customize exclusive protection plans based on local risk characteristics, and cannot directly apply mature domestic pricing models.

There is also a huge workload of transformation at the system construction level. The core system of domestic auto insurance is adapted to domestic currencies, Chinese languages, and local maintenance supply chains. After going to sea, it is necessary to rebuild a multi-language and multi-currency settlement platform to open up data interfaces for local parts suppliers, maintenance agencies, and loss assessment companies. The complete set of digital risk control, underwriting, and claims claims systems almost need to be rebuilt from scratch, and it is impossible to simply shift the existing domestic online service system.

However, the digital system of online underwriting and AI intelligent loss determination that has been established in China for many years has become the core advantage of Chinese insurance companies overtaking in corners. If more than 80% of claim cases can be remotely determined online and closed online, it can be greatly reduced. The dependence on offline physical outlets alleviates the shortcomings of insufficient offline layout.

Offline service networks are another major shortcoming that is difficult to make up for in the short term. Claims settlement, accident rescue, and human injury disposal ultimately require the support of offline outlets. Mature overseas local insurance companies have been deeply involved in the local area for decades and have cooperative auto repair plants, loss assessment agencies, and road rescue resources covering the entire region; Chinese-funded insurance companies can only build a full-chain offline service network from scratch. The network layout cycle is long and the early stage of manpower and capital investment is huge, making it difficult to form complete local service capabilities in the short term.

Extreme overseas compensation risks also test the actuarial and reinsurance systems of domestic insurance companies. Wei Ran gave an example. The compensation amount for domestic new energy spontaneous combustion accidents is relatively controllable, but the legal systems in European and American markets are strict. If a battery fire causes casualties in the car, the compensation amount may reach a sky-high price of 10 million yuan. Existing domestic actuarial models have long lacked similar major human injury accident risk data, and corresponding reinsurance packages and global risk allocation mechanisms need to be rebuilt, greatly increasing the cost of risk control in the early stage of going out to sea.

Yang Zhiyong added that overseas insurance licenses and operating qualifications have extremely high thresholds. Most countries around the world require licensed professional institutions to carry out automobile insurance business. It is difficult for a single automobile company to independently apply for and maintain insurance operating qualifications in countries around the world. Ping An, PICC, etc. National large-scale insurance companies such as Taibao have strong financial strength and mature reinsurance networks. They also have the inherent advantages of operating overseas licenses and building a global risk sharing system. They are also the main force in the current automobile insurance overseas layout.

carry out the sea

Collaborate to build a global industrial chain

Faced with multiple challenges in sailing, the industry has reached a unified consensus: relying solely on a single entity of insurance companies or automobile companies cannot build a sustainable cross-border automobile insurance system. Only deep collaboration and complementary division of labor can we create a full-chain insurance service model that suits the globalization of China automobiles.

In terms of how to divide the collaborative positioning of the two parties, Wei Ran proposed that the overall business should be led by insurance companies to lead compliance operations, risk pricing and reinsurance coordination, and automobile companies should control customer access channels such as front-end offline stores and vehicle and aircraft traffic. The two are not mutual Alternative competitive relationships, but deeply bound and indispensable symbiotic partners.

Judging from the three core sectors of global insurance business qualifications, cross-regional risk control systems, and international reinsurance layout, insurance companies have irreplaceable professional advantages. Their service scope can cover all brands of overseas vehicles in the market, and are not subject to the product matrix of a single automobile company. Limit; Automobile companies firmly grasp the terminal sales scenario and rely on vehicle-machine embedded insurance and overseas 4S stores to achieve direct connection between car owners. It is an efficient and low-cost entry point for insurance institutions to reach overseas individual car owners.

At present, the collaboration model with high industry recognition and large-scale implementation comes from China Pacific Insurance. Recently, the relevant person in charge of China Pacific Insurance disclosed that the company has explored the formation of a cross-border service model of "technology export + local services." Through in-depth cooperation with overseas and local licensed insurance institutions, local partners issue localized policies in accordance with national regulations, China Pacific Insurance has exported a complete set of technical models for risk pricing of new energy vehicles, collision loss assessment, and risk control of three power companies accumulated in China over the past 10 years, and relies on the global reinsurance mechanism to allocate large amounts of compensation risks.

Taking the implementation project in the Thai market as an example, this cooperation model has stably served many domestic mainstream car companies, and has insured more than 50,000 new energy vehicles. It is currently being replicated and promoted in batches in overseas markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and Sweden. The entire cooperation model is not just to simply export a single vehicle loss insurance policy overseas, but to focus on the overseas full life cycle operation needs of automobile companies, supporting complete vehicle ocean cross-border freight insurance, overseas factory construction insurance, extended insurance of the three power systems, and vehicle residual value. Multi-level comprehensive risk plans such as protection and product liability insurance can realize the upgrade of insurance services from single vehicle protection to entire automobile industry chain protection.

As China's auto industry continues to seize the global market, auto insurance has become a key link in supporting the deepening and strengthening of China's auto industry. In the future, insurance will continue to resolve various risks from overseas operations, continue to release the competitiveness of China automobile brands at sea, and promote the leapfrog upgrade of the industry from product export to complete industrial ecological export.

Source: China Auto News

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