The reform of new energy vehicle insurance premiums is proceeding quietly, with the second minor adjustment to the floating range of the independent pricing coefficient. The goal is fairness, fairness, fairness.

Recently, “Huibao Tianxia” learned from industry insiders that the autonomous pricing coefficient range for new energy vehicle insurance has been adjusted again, expanding from [0.6-1.4] to [0.55-1.45]. This is the second expansion since September 2025, bringing it very close to the ultimate goal of [0.5-1.5].

Compared to the one-step expansion of fuel vehicle insurance pricing coefficients in 2023, the adjustment for new energy vehicle insurance has been gradual, in three steps, attempting to minimize market impact.

However, regardless of the approach, the autonomous pricing coefficient for new energy vehicle insurance is continuously expanding toward a more market-oriented direction, with the goal of better matching insurance prices to actual risks.

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Three-step expansion of autonomous pricing coefficients for new energy vehicle insurance, aligning with fuel vehicles

The autonomous pricing coefficient for auto insurance is a factor that insurance companies adjust within a range based on risk factors such as vehicle type, usage, and driver behavior, on top of the base premium. The range of this coefficient directly determines the pricing boundaries for insurers. The continuous expansion of this range often means insurers have more flexible pricing options, and it also means that the insurance premiums for consumers will better reflect their risk levels, further reducing the subsidy of high-risk customers by low-risk customers.

Historically, the core of auto insurance reform has been to break the uniform pricing model and move toward “risk and price matching,” better meeting the differentiated needs of drivers at various risk levels. Since the comprehensive reform of auto insurance in 2020, where the autonomous channel coefficient and autonomous underwriting coefficient were merged into the autonomous pricing coefficient, the expansion of the pricing coefficient range has become a trend. In 2023, the autonomous pricing coefficient range for fuel vehicles was expanded once from [0.65-1.35] to [0.5-1.5].

In September 2025, the autonomous pricing coefficient for new energy vehicle insurance was adjusted for the first time, a slight tweak, expanding from [0.65-1.35] to [0.6-1.4].

On March 6, 2026, a second minor adjustment was made, further expanding the range from [0.6-1.4] to [0.55-1.45].

Industry insiders indicate that in the second half of 2026, the autonomous pricing coefficient for new energy vehicle insurance will undergo a third adjustment, further expanding to [0.5-1.5], fully aligning with fuel vehicles.

For high-risk consumers, this means the theoretical maximum premium for their new energy vehicle insurance will be raised. Meanwhile, for drivers with relatively lower risk levels, the theoretical minimum premium will be lowered. The ultimate result is that insurance prices for new energy vehicles will better match actual risk, making pricing fairer and more reasonable, with additional incentives for low-risk consumers.

Industry experts say that this adjustment in new energy vehicle insurance premiums is the result of years of accumulated experience data. Since the implementation of dedicated clauses for new energy vehicle insurance, the entire industry has accumulated over four years of underwriting and claims data. The number of new energy vehicles has increased from 7.84 million to over 40 million by the end of 2025. With richer data, insurers can more accurately assess core risk indicators such as the risks of the three electric systems, maintenance costs of intelligent components, and accident rates across different models. This allows the pricing models to more closely reflect real risks, ultimately benefiting the entire market.

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Everything begins in 2024: the gradual high-quality development of new energy vehicle insurance

The “premium reform” for new energy vehicle insurance started in January 2024, when the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued the “Notice on Promoting High-Quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Insurance (Draft for Comments),” explicitly stating that the autonomous pricing coefficient range for new energy commercial vehicle insurance should be implemented as [0.5-1.5].

By January 2025, the Financial Regulatory Administration, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Transport, and Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Deepening Reform, Strengthening Supervision, and Promoting High-Quality Development of New Energy Vehicle Insurance.” While they did not specify the range for the autonomous pricing coefficient, they clearly emphasized:

“Steadily optimize the floating range of autonomous pricing coefficients. Reasonably optimize the range of autonomous pricing coefficients for new energy commercial vehicle insurance, effectively leverage market mechanisms, promote better risk-price matching, and improve the scientificity of pricing by market entities.”

This indicates that optimizing the autonomous pricing coefficient for new energy vehicle insurance has received consistent recognition from multiple ministries. Of course, this is just one part of a broader reform package aimed at high-quality development of new energy vehicle insurance, which also includes establishing high-loss risk sharing mechanisms, enriching commercial insurance products, and optimizing baseline rates for commercial insurance. These reforms have become the main focus of the 2025 auto insurance market development.

Against this backdrop, early in 2025, the “Good Insurance for Vehicles” platform was launched to address the difficulty of insuring high-claim-risk new energy vehicles. By February 2026, the platform had served 1.35 million new energy vehicles and nearly 1.7 million registered users.

Since the launch of dedicated clauses for new energy vehicles at the end of 2021, the development of specialized commercial insurance for new energy vehicles has made significant progress over four years. Starting in the first half of 2025, the operation of new energy vehicle insurance has improved. Major insurers like PICC, Ping An, and Taiping have reported that their new energy vehicle insurance businesses are beginning to turn profitable, with optimized combined loss ratios. Industry data also shows that the premium signing growth rate for new energy vehicle insurance exceeded 40%, outpacing the growth of claims paid.

However, most small and medium insurers are still struggling with losses, and some regional markets have even experienced “premium increases for unclaimed customers” due to operational pressures. This underscores that only by truly liberalizing autonomous pricing coefficients and aligning premiums with risks can the industry break out of the cycle of “drivers complain about high costs, insurers complain about losses,” and move toward high-quality development.

Of course, the challenges facing new energy vehicle insurance are not solely about pricing coefficients but also involve product innovation, technological changes, and risk assessment across multiple dimensions. While expanding the pricing range provides insurers with more flexible risk pricing tools, these tools alone cannot automatically solve industry losses. The real challenge lies in whether insurers can establish comprehensive risk identification systems and enhance refined pricing capabilities within the broader, widened pricing intervals.

On a deeper level, with rapid iteration of new energy vehicles—many models claiming Level 3 autonomous driving, and Level 4 models emerging—the insurance industry continues to face challenges. As China’s new energy vehicle market share increases and the vehicles go global, the market space for new energy vehicle insurance remains broad.

During this year’s National Two Sessions, Zhou Yanfang, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and director of the China Pacific Strategic Research Center (ESG Office), proposed advancing high-quality development of new energy vehicle insurance by building national-level autonomous driving data sharing standards and platforms, accelerating the revision of laws and regulations related to intelligent driving, establishing key technical and service standards, and implementing differentiated product innovation and pricing guidelines.