Modern Insurance Magazine Issue 62
This issue features... Insight: A Guide to the New Consumer Duty, with Branko Bjelobaba, FCII Interview: Doing the Right Thing, with Matt Brewis, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Interview: A New Consumer Freedom, with Sam Richardson, Which? Money Editorial Board: Find out what our editorial board panel of experts have to say in this edition of Modern Insurance Magazine Associations Assemble: Modern Insurance's panel of resident associations outline the burning issues in insurance Just a Thought with Eddie Longworth... Suppliers Must Also Deliver Consumer Duty Obligations Consumer Intelligence: Avoiding Consumer Harm in the Consumer Duty Age Modern Claims Awards 2024: Meet the Judges EDAM Group: Meet the Company, 'Internal Satisfaction Informs Customer Satisfaction at EDAM Group' Dive In Festival: Dive In's 'Below the Surface' Event Shines a Light on Insurance Industry's Diversity and Inclusion Challenges Thinking Upside Down: Consumer Duty: An Illusion?? with Michael Lewis, CEO, Claim Technology I Love Claims / ARC 360: The Unintended Consequences of Consumer Duty Europcar: Can the Insurance Sector Help to Accelerate the Adoption of EV? with James Roberts, Head of Insurance Sales 10 Mins with… Ajay Mistry, Founder and Director, Gambit Partners, & Co-Founder and Co-Chair, iCAN (The Insurance Cultural Awareness Network) Insur.Tech.Talk - Interviews with Farooq Sheikh, Global Head of Insurance at Unqork; Brent Williams, Founder and CEO at Benekiva; Juan Mazzini, Head of Insurance Practice APAC, EMEA, LATAM at Celent; Meredith Barnes-Cook, Partner at ReSource Pro Consulting; and Ron Rock, Managing Director - Financial Services at JobsOhio Insur.Tech.Talk Editorial Board - Experts from within the insurtech sector and beyond join us once more to share their unique insights!
This issue features...
Insight: A Guide to the New Consumer Duty, with Branko Bjelobaba, FCII
Interview: Doing the Right Thing, with Matt Brewis, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Interview: A New Consumer Freedom, with Sam Richardson, Which? Money
Editorial Board: Find out what our editorial board panel of experts have to say in this edition of Modern Insurance Magazine
Associations Assemble: Modern Insurance's panel of resident associations outline the burning issues in insurance
Just a Thought with Eddie Longworth... Suppliers Must Also Deliver Consumer Duty Obligations
Consumer Intelligence: Avoiding Consumer Harm in the Consumer Duty Age
Modern Claims Awards 2024: Meet the Judges
EDAM Group: Meet the Company, 'Internal Satisfaction Informs Customer Satisfaction at EDAM Group'
Dive In Festival: Dive In's 'Below the Surface' Event Shines a Light on Insurance Industry's Diversity and Inclusion Challenges
Thinking Upside Down: Consumer Duty: An Illusion?? with Michael Lewis, CEO, Claim Technology
I Love Claims / ARC 360: The Unintended Consequences of Consumer Duty
Europcar: Can the Insurance Sector Help to Accelerate the Adoption of EV? with James Roberts, Head of Insurance Sales
10 Mins with… Ajay Mistry, Founder and Director, Gambit Partners, & Co-Founder and Co-Chair, iCAN (The Insurance Cultural Awareness Network)
Insur.Tech.Talk - Interviews with Farooq Sheikh, Global Head of Insurance at Unqork; Brent Williams, Founder and CEO at Benekiva; Juan Mazzini, Head of Insurance Practice APAC, EMEA, LATAM at Celent; Meredith Barnes-Cook, Partner at ReSource Pro Consulting; and Ron Rock, Managing Director - Financial Services at JobsOhio
Insur.Tech.Talk Editorial Board - Experts from within the insurtech sector and beyond join us once more to share their unique insights!
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FEATURES<br />
Can the insurance<br />
sector help to<br />
accelerate the<br />
adoption of EV?<br />
James Roberts, Head of <strong>Insurance</strong> Sales, Europcar Mobility Group UK, discusses how vehicle rental can<br />
support the insurance industry as it strives to match customer ambitions towards zero emissions.<br />
To help customers make those ‘good financial<br />
decisions’, businesses must provide a range of<br />
suitable options from which they can choose.<br />
However, sole supplier agreements make this<br />
difficult to achieve in the insurance space. Insurers<br />
working with only one CHO or replacement<br />
vehicle partner are at risk of breaching their<br />
Consumer Duty if there’s a perception that the<br />
customer is not being offered the best choice for<br />
their needs.<br />
As consumer demand for electric vehicles<br />
(EVs) continues to grow, the insurance sector is<br />
shifting rapidly to keep pace. Policies have been<br />
amended to suit electric and hybrid models,<br />
and repair networks have updated training and<br />
suppliers to ensure that they can work safely<br />
on the increasingly electrified car parc. What<br />
is proving more of a challenge, however, is<br />
providing electric vehicles as replacements while<br />
a policyholder’s own EV is being repaired after<br />
an accident.<br />
The cost and availability of EVs are two significant<br />
blockers, especially for those insurers with sole<br />
supplier contracts. Many such insurers have been<br />
forced to scrap like-for-like vehicle replacement<br />
policies. In light of the COVID-19 supply<br />
shortage, they were left grateful to be able to offer<br />
customers any kind of temporary vehicle at all.<br />
If an insurer is unable to offer the best solution<br />
for the needs of the customer, they could now<br />
be at risk of breaching their Consumer Duty<br />
requirements. And, as the electric car parc grows,<br />
the demand for like-for-like vehicle replacement<br />
should be the default – not the exception.<br />
Meeting policyholders’<br />
expectations<br />
We recently commissioned a study amongst<br />
electric car drivers, and found that 90% would<br />
expect an EV replacement in the event of their<br />
own vehicle being out of commission after an<br />
accident 1 . Insurers unable to meet this expectation<br />
risk damaging delicate customer relationships. The<br />
Motor Ombudsman is already starting to see a<br />
small rise in the number of EV complaints – with<br />
the level of service delivered by businesses, and<br />
problems encountered at the point of purchase,<br />
highlighted as key concerns 2 . As EV adoption<br />
moves beyond the early adopters and becomes<br />
a mainstream choice, insurers are going to need<br />
to keep up the pace or face reputational risk.<br />
There are already around 840,000 fully electric<br />
cars and 520,000 plug-in hybrids on UK roads 3 ,<br />
making up more than 20% of the car parc and<br />
representing a significant number of customers<br />
who are likely to expect an EV replacement.<br />
Drivers of ICE vehicles may also be tempted to<br />
use the opportunity to test-drive electric if the<br />
option was available for their replacement.<br />
Electric rental<br />
As the industry adapts to the growing electric car<br />
parc, Europcar Mobility Group UK is working<br />
closely with insurance providers, repair networks<br />
and other key players to help them deliver<br />
continued customer satisfaction and retention.<br />
We are already committed to helping drivers<br />
adapt to the new drivetrain as soon as possible<br />
by providing easy access to EV rental. That<br />
commitment now extends to replacement vehicles<br />
through insurance providers.<br />
Insurers selecting Europcar as their EV<br />
replacement partner will have the confidence<br />
that our network is increasingly electrified. More<br />
than 200 charging points are already installed at<br />
rental locations across the UK. Plus, each driver<br />
benefits from a comprehensive vehicle handover<br />
and support with charging instructions, alongside<br />
a growing team of specialist Certified Electric<br />
Vehicle experts on hand at many locations to<br />
help customers as they get to know their rental<br />
vehicle.<br />
We provide a viable alternative to the sole<br />
supplier conundrum, too. For insurance providers<br />
who have historically opted for sole supply<br />
contracts, moving away from this model will<br />
ensure that they have contingency against vehicle<br />
supply gaps, resulting in minimised friction from<br />
the claims process.<br />
Understanding the customer<br />
experience<br />
Drivers and businesses are increasingly<br />
prioritising sustainability and zero emissions<br />
mobility, and insurers need to be able to respond<br />
to these key issues. By working collaboratively, we<br />
can help with valuable insights and learnings as<br />
our fleet of electric vehicles grows.<br />
For example, a Europcar team took part in a<br />
1,200-mile EV Rally earlier this year, tracking<br />
across the British Isles from Cardiff to London,<br />
Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin. This unique<br />
experience provides us with invaluable insights,<br />
which are helping us to better serve customers<br />
as they look for more environmentally friendly<br />
vehicles. It also underlined the importance of<br />
gaining real-world experience with a range of<br />
options available, from a rental of a few days to<br />
several months, and with the facility to try different<br />
makes and models.<br />
Although the vehicle landscape is changing,<br />
motorists will appreciate an insurance provider<br />
that is flexible and able to offer innovative<br />
solutions to sustainable driving. Working with<br />
the right vehicle partner is a crucial step towards<br />
making this a reality within the insurance industry.<br />
For further information, visit www.europcar.co.uk/<br />
business<br />
James Roberts,<br />
Head of <strong>Insurance</strong> Sales,<br />
Europcar Mobility Group UK<br />
1<br />
Survey via Vypr of 228 EV owners, conducted September 2023<br />
2<br />
The Motor Ombudsman- https://www.themotorombudsman.org/<br />
press-releases/tmo-reports-a-small-rise-in-ev-complaints-from-consumersin-q2-2023<br />
3<br />
ZapMap- https://www.zap-map.com/ev-stats/ev-market<br />
MODERN INSURANCE | 51