08/06/2012
Chinese motor insurance market a new and novel monster
“Where should you aim when you need to spit?” is not the kind of question you expect to be part of your driving test. However, for those taking a test in China it is the reality and forms just one detail in what is, for Western drivers, a new and novel motoring landscape.
According to news agency Reuters, this has heralded a boom in the Chinese car insurance market. Good news, you would think, for motor insurance companies, but the truth is that once you factor in all the eccentricities, vagaries and leviathan looms of red tape, the outlook is rather less attractive.
Take the following quote as an example: “People like us who buy Ferraris don't care too much about insurance because we buy cars for speeding. If we crash, we just throw them away."
The motorist speaking is just one of the thousands of new super-wealthy drivers in China who care very little for finer points of motoring etiquette or indeed for the globally accepted rules of the car insurance market.
China has now overtaken the US as the world's biggest market for new cars, so the situation is only going to develop. It will be fascinating to see how motor insurers respond to the many challenges they will inevitably face.
According to news agency Reuters, this has heralded a boom in the Chinese car insurance market. Good news, you would think, for motor insurance companies, but the truth is that once you factor in all the eccentricities, vagaries and leviathan looms of red tape, the outlook is rather less attractive.
Take the following quote as an example: “People like us who buy Ferraris don't care too much about insurance because we buy cars for speeding. If we crash, we just throw them away."
The motorist speaking is just one of the thousands of new super-wealthy drivers in China who care very little for finer points of motoring etiquette or indeed for the globally accepted rules of the car insurance market.
China has now overtaken the US as the world's biggest market for new cars, so the situation is only going to develop. It will be fascinating to see how motor insurers respond to the many challenges they will inevitably face.
Photo © decade_null via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance, drivers, motoring
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