Skip to main content

89 million insurance telematics subscribers by 2017

According to new research by ABI Research, insurance telematics users will grow at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017.
March 13, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
According to new research by 5725 ABI Research, insurance telematics users will grow at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017. Dominique Bonte, group director, telematics and navigation, comments, “While insurance telematics or usage based insurance (UBI) is far from a recent phenomenon – US-based Progressive was already trialling solutions back in 2002 – a renewed interest in this market has occurred over the past two years, with an acceleration in uptake, as well as a dramatic change in the very nature of UBI, migrating from pay as you drive (PAYD) to pay how you drive (PHYD) based on continuous driver behaviour monitoring and analysis.”

UBI allows insurance vendors to establish a continuous communication and feedback channel to build brand loyalty in an increasingly competitive auto insurance market. In the same way, value-added service packages including emergency services, roadside assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, teen driver monitoring, and vehicle diagnostics are often offered.

While the de-averaged pricing model and fairness principle of UBI to treat customers as individuals and have them pay for the risks they are actually taking instead of premiums depending on inaccurate proxies such as age and gender is gaining acceptance, many barriers hindering mass market uptake are still in place: self-selection of low risk drivers, privacy, lack of understanding of complex offers, lack of historical perspective validated by statistical data, absence of standards, installation of telematics hardware, and IP litigation.    

While currently the default UBI hardware solution consists of a dedicated device plugged into the vehicle’s diagnostics OBD port, future UBI hardware solutions will increasingly be based on either factory-installed technology (as in-car connectivity penetration rates increase) or – for the aftermarket – converged devices such as smartphones wirelessly connecting to the OBD bus via Bluetooth adapters.

ABI Research’s new study, “Insurance Telematics,” covers the different solutions for insurance telematics including PAYD and PHYD across different form factors such as embedded, portable, and converged in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World. It includes detailed descriptions of market drivers and barriers, as well as shipment, subscribers, and discount forecasts.

Related Content

  • April 17, 2012
    Embedded OEM and aftermarket telematics solutions to reach 189 million by 2016
    “Despite all the hype about hybrid and smartphone-based telematics solutions, embedded connected car systems still have a bright future,” says ABI Research telematics and navigation group director Dominique Bonte. “On the OEM side, solutions such as GM’s OnStar and Hyundai’s Blue Link offer more reliable safety and security functionality such as emergency calling. Similarly, embedded aftermarket systems for insurance telematics, road user charging, or stolen vehicle tracking offer the best performance. Fina
  • November 28, 2013
    User based insurance is helping good drivers and identifying the bad ones
    Thomas Hallauer gives an overview of Usage Based Insurance (UBI), an industry that is putting telematic devices into more vehicles than fleet management ever did. The insurance market is going through a transformation phase never seen before. Insurers have not only started to track individual cars for Usage Based Insurance (UBI), they are also using the technology to enhance consumer services as more drivers join up to these schemes. Progressive Insurance in the US has 1.4 million customers signed up to
  • July 4, 2012
    60% of new cars globally will feature connected car solutions by 2017
    New findings from ABI Research predict that global OEM connected car system penetration will increase from 11.4 per cent in 2012 to 60.1 per cent in 2017. While penetration in the US and Western Europe will exceed 80 per cent by 2017, developing regions such as Latin America and Eastern Europe will also see strong increases in telematics penetration in new vehicles, largely driven by mandates in Brazil and Russia.
  • May 18, 2012
    Commercial telematics shipments to exceed 6.4 million by 2016
    A new report from ABI Research predicts that global shipments of commercial telematics equipment will increase from 1.94 million in 2011 to 6.43 million in 2016. While North America is still the leading market, Asia-Pacific is set for strong growth driven by economic expansion, a booming automotive industry, and urgent requirements to use increasingly scarce resources more efficiently.