Automakers Build New Insurance Future

As data and technology pervade the car manufacturing industry, automakers have made fresh inroads into insurance. For more than a century, carmakers and automobile insurers have largely kept to their own lanes. That was before data ruled.

In 2022, data and technology have inspired the automobile industry to get more involved in the insurance side of the ledger, prompting an increase in the number of inter-industry partnerships and more.

For auto insurers, partnerships and other steps car manufacturers have taken to edge their way into the insurance industry offer a way to gain and maintain market share in the highly competitive personal auto space, AM Best Senior Director Richard Attanasio said.

Offering products directly and at the point of a vehicle sale brings carriers an avenue of distribution with potentially lower expense levels and additional insight that can help set rates, he said.

Insurers working closely with manufacturers agree that they benefit from access to new data on driving behaviors, and seeing how they affect losses as automation advances and interest in electric vehicles surges.