Private insurance company, ACKO has introduced an Extended Battery Warranty Plan in partnership with Ola Electric and Ather Energy.
The company says it aims to create an infrastructure for the EV landscape by partnering with OEMs and offering comprehensive insurance plans to EV customers.
This will address the existing pain points and thereby bring a radical disruption in the fast-evolving EV industry.
ACKO’s Extended Battery Warranty plan addresses customer concerns around battery life and performance. It says partnering OEMs will improve EV affordability where the banks will be able to extend the loan duration for vehicles and thus reduce the EMI instalments.
The plan protects the battery life till the fourth or the fifth year and provides performance coverage for up to 60,000km. Under the comprehensive plan, EV components will also be covered in addition to the battery. The uniqueness of the plan is that it is transferable to the new owner in the event of sale. The cost visibility factor for the battery and other parts of the vehicle will help get a better resale value.
The EV market has seen its all-time high in 2022 with a 223 percent growth in its electric vehicle sales. This is further expected to grow at a CAGR of 44.5 percent between 2020 and 2025.
As per a research report by ACKO and YouGov India– ‘Is the Future Electric?’, over 49 percent of EV car owners believe that battery replacement costs form a substantial part of EV ownership. Additionally, while 66 percent of the respondents assume that battery life only lasts between two to five years, a majority of EV users believe that charging behaviour has a definite role to play in the vehicle’s battery life.
Animesh Das, VP – Motor Underwriting, ACKO, said, “The Indian EV journey is an aggressive growth story which has propelled the demand for customised protection solutions amongst customers. Our research report found a demand for these solutions from 79% of the respondents. The report also underlined that 67% of EV owners want to own an insurance policy with their electric vehicles.”
“This is a positive sign from the new age customers who have evolved preferences and want to adopt environmentally safer alternatives for the ecosystem. We are confident that with our partnership, OEMs will be better equipped to answer the doubts in customer minds about longevity and performance of the Electric Vehicle. This will indeed ease the lives of our customers and promote a nationwide rapid adoption of EVs,” said Das.