GlobalData surveying has found that over half of e-scooter owners have not purchased/renewed the insurance policy for the product. In recent years, e-bike/scooter use has grown rapidly, however, licensing laws, safety standards, and accident reporting have not kept pace; making it difficult for insurers to provide comprehensive, well-informed coverage, which leaves consumers wary to purchase/renew the insurance policy.
GlobalData’s 2024 UK Insurance Consumer Survey found that 54.8% of consumers who own an e-scooter did not purchase/renew the insurance policy in the last 12 months. This could be due to not being able to find a policy that included everything they wanted covered, which highlights the gaps (influenced by the lack of data) in the insurance policies that do not cover all the consumer' wants so, ultimately, they choose to not purchase/renew the insurance policy and face more damages.
The same survey conducted by GlobalData also asked consumers what they would want to have covered in their e-scooter policy, which further shows how consumers would like to feel more insured in certain situations such as injuries to themselves and other people, as well as damage to their e-scooter and other property/things.
Moreover, the lapses in road safety will lead to insurance claims as around 90% of the approximately 4,000 major cyclist collisions a year involved a motor vehicle and frequently led to claims against drivers, even when cyclists may have been negligent or reckless as explained in a white paper titled ‘Pedalling into the unknown – the hidden human and insurance cost of the UK’s eBike boom’. As many cyclists are uninsured and exposed to this risk, it has become a heightening area of uncovered losses in insurance policies.
The report also mentioned improvements being required in the collection of incident data under the STATS19 road safety data reports as, presently, e-bikes/scooters are not commonly differentiated from standard bicycles in accident reporting, nor is helmet usage recorded. Collecting this data would allow insurers to efficiently adapt their policies; ensuring consumers feel safer and more insurable. To conclude, with e-bike usage on the rise, insurers will continue to face the data gap that restricts effective risk assessment and policy development. To close the gap, they must invest in data collection partnerships and start collecting better insights to build more comprehensive coverage solutions for this growing market.
“E-bike/scooter surge highlights gaps in regulation and insurance” was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand.
