According to the results of a recent survey among six countries across Europe, the majority of drivers would choose an auto insurance program that uses telematics if they were guaranteed that they would not experience a premiums increase.
Most of the survey respondents expressed a level of interest in usage based coverage programs.
The majority of the participants in this recent Towers Watson survey said that they were interested in usage based auto insurance programs that use data obtained from telematics. According to Towers Watson, which recently released its research results, “Across all six participating European countries, 55% of drivers indicated some interest in telematics insurance.”
When compared to the United States, this interest in telematics based auto insurance was only slightly higher.
The New York based company stated that “The comparable figure for the United States, where telematics is already becoming a mass market product, was 50%.” The countries that participated in this survey included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. The company stated that the results from the United States were considered “primarily as a comparative benchmark” for the results that were obtained from the European countries.
The results data that was issued by Towers Watson included both the percentage of the respondents who found this type of auto insurance appealing and those who found it appealing if it came with a guarantee that there would not be an increase in their premiums. What it determined was that the guarantee made a considerable difference in the amount of interest that drivers had in usage based coverage.
The data included the following:
• 75 percent were interested in Italy (79 percent with a guarantee of no premiums increase)
• 69 percent were interested in Spain (78 percent with the guarantee)
• 55 percent were interested in France (62 percent with the guarantee)
• 51 percent were interested in Germany (61 percent with the guarantee)
• 50 percent were interested in the United Kingdom (57 percent with the guarantee)
• 35 percent were interested in the Netherlands (47 percent with the guarantee).
Overall, it was clear that European drivers are interested in telematics based auto insurance, but there is a concern that it will cause them to have to pay more. Eliminating that concern could be a considerable factor in uptake.