The industry suffered a huge loss of 5.6 billion, but CheChe Car Insurance turned a profit.
Did the money from new energy vehicle insurance get pocketed by intermediaries?

【Text/Yu Shan Guan Jin Studio Li Limeng】

On April 2, the Nasdaq-listed insurtech platform Cheche Technology (CCG, hereinafter referred to as “Cheche”) released its unaudited financial results for the second half of 2025 and for the full year. The data shows that the adjusted net profit for the full year of 2025 was 11.6 million yuan, achieving a turnaround from loss to profit. Among them, the adjusted net profit for the second half reached 22.2 million yuan, an increase of 311.43% quarter over quarter compared with the first half’s -10.5 million yuan. The total policy issuance premium volume for the full year reached 27 billion yuan, up 11% year over year. Of this, the 2025 premium signed for new energy vehicles was 6.3 billion yuan, up 91.0%.

On March 31, the China Association of Actuaries and China’s Insurance Information and Technology Services Co., Ltd. (China Insurance Regulatory Information Technology Co., Ltd., “China Yinxin”) just released a set of data: in 2025, China’s insurance industry underwrote 43.58 million new energy vehicle policies, corresponding to premium income of 190 billion yuan. However, the industry’s underwriting losses reached 5.6 billion yuan. Although the combined cost ratio decreased by 1.3 percentage points year over year, the loss was reduced by only 100 million yuan compared with the 57 billion yuan loss in 2024.

One side is the huge industry loss of nearly 6 billion yuan, and the other side is an insurtech platform being the first to turn profitable. Where did the money go?

2 million new energy vehicle policies, 63 billion yuan in premiums, up 91%

Cheche is not a traditional insurance company, but an insurtech platform. It embeds itself into the automaker ecosystem as a technology service provider.

Cheche 2025 traditional auto insurance and new energy vehicle insurance time-segment comparison table (unit: 100 million yuan, ten thousand policies)

In 2025, Cheche’s business structure showed a striking contrast: the number of new energy vehicle insurance policies increased by 85.3% year over year to 2 million policies, while the number of traditional auto insurance policies decreased by 7.0% year over year.

Behind this change is a significant difference in gross profit margins. In 2025, Cheche’s new energy vehicle premiums were 2.6 billion yuan in the first half and 3.7 billion yuan in the second half, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 42%. The second half’s new energy premiums were 1.1 billion yuan higher than the first half, and gross profit also increased by 28.8 million yuan, closely matching the net profit increase of 22.2 million yuan for the second half. The contribution of the new energy vehicle insurance business to profitability shows a clear seasonal expansion pattern. By comparison, the traditional auto insurance market has basically completed reforms, leaving limited room for growth.

From a macro trend perspective, China’s stock of new energy vehicles has reached 43.97 million, and it is expected to exceed 100 million vehicles by 2030, with a penetration rate of over 70%. The company’s decision to fully bet on new energy vehicle insurance is precisely about seizing this structural opportunity—by embedding into automaker apps to capture new-car insurance entry points, and building competitive barriers through online underwriting conversion rates and AI pricing technology. When traditional auto insurance policy volumes contract, new energy vehicle insurance becomes the new engine with growth of over 85%; this also explains why Cheche Technology can turn profitable ahead of the industry’s overall losses.

The company’s share in the new energy vehicle insurance market is about 3.3%, which has improved compared with 2024, and its growth rate is far higher than the industry’s average of 33.8%. Zhang Lei, founder and CEO of Cheche Technology, said: “2025 is a crucial turning point for Cheche Technology. This confirms the enormous commercial value of the intelligent connected-vehicle insurance model that combines data-driven insights with AI empowerment.”

Cooperation with 16 automakers to secure insurance service entry; online underwriting rate exceeds 95%

Cheche’s profitability first comes from its capture of automakers’ core entry point.

By the end of 2025, the company had reached total-to-total strategic cooperation with 16 major mainstream new energy vehicle automakers, connected products from 80 insurance companies, and further deepened ecological coordination with leading automakers. Partner automakers include Xiaomi Auto, Li Auto, NIO, Volkswagen Anhui, Tesla, Xpeng, and other mainstream brands, forming a full lifecycle service closed loop covering new-car new insurance, existing policy renewals, and intelligent claims.

In the era of new energy vehicles, automaker apps have become the highest-frequency and most core service entry point for vehicle owners. Cheche provides end-to-end digital solutions for automakers covering pricing, underwriting, claims, and full-lifecycle management. It connects its self-developed auto insurance trading platform to automaker apps in an embedded manner, enabling precise insurance touchpoints in key scenarios such as purchasing a car, using a car, maintaining a car, and replacing a car. This “order a car is to insure” model creates a natural traffic advantage. For example, with top new energy brands such as Xiaomi, Tesla, and Li Auto, the platform’s peak monthly new-car policy issuance exceeds 100,000 units. The online underwriting conversion rate remains stable at over 95%, and the proportion of car owners who self-insure via the app reaches as high as 87%.

In addition, the company also extends its digital intelligence experience to the traditional fuel vehicle market, promoting the insurance digital transformation of some traditional automakers and expanding more diversified sources of revenue.

Industry losses and intermediary profits: a structural mismatch

Returning to the question at the beginning of the article: why is the industry losing money, while Cheche Technology is profitable?

The answer lies in the cost structure of new energy vehicle insurance. In 2025, there were 143 vehicle models with a claims ratio exceeding 100% across the entire industry, 6 more than in the previous year. High-intensity use models such as new energy freight trucks and ride-hailing cars became the worst-hit areas for losses. These vehicles travel more than 200 kilometers per day on average, which is 5 times the 40 kilometers per day average for household cars. Their incident/accident rate is 3 times that of household cars. However, a substantial portion are insured as passenger vehicles. Their premium standards are far lower than those for operating/transport vehicles, creating a mismatch of “high claims, low premiums,” which directly lifts the industry’s overall claims ratio.

Operating as an asset-light insurtech platform, Cheche does not directly assume insurance payout risk. Instead, it charges fees by providing technology services to automakers and insurance companies. The key to its profit model lies in—embedding into automakers’ sales channels and seizing the new-car insurance underwriting entry point—this is a relatively stable segment in the entire new energy vehicle insurance value chain that is not directly hit by claims fluctuations. In other words, most of the money the industry loses comes from the claims side, while the money Cheche Technology earns comes from service fees on the channel side; the two are not on the same link of the value chain.

Of course, Cheche Technology is not under zero pressure.

On the one hand, revenue growth has continued to slow down. The company’s revenue growth rate dropped sharply from 54.38% in 2022 to 2.30% in the first three quarters of 2024. Although new energy premiums in 2025 increased by 91%, the overall revenue growth rate still remains below 11%. The contraction of the traditional auto insurance business is offsetting the high growth of new energy insurance.

On the other hand, accounts receivable are high. As of the end of 2025, the company’s net accounts receivable was approximately 980 million yuan. While this represents slight fluctuations compared with 982 million yuan at the end of 2024, the overall level still remains close to 1 billion yuan, accounting for more than 80% of current assets. From a structural perspective, receivables mainly come from insurance companies and new energy vehicle manufacturers, and the payment terms are generally between 30 and 90 days. The company stated in its financial report risk warning that, as the new energy vehicle insurance business expands rapidly, the scale of accounts receivable will increase accordingly. If the payment delays of major cooperation partners occur, or their credit conditions worsen, it may bring slower collections and bad debt risks, thereby adversely affecting the stability of the company’s cash flow and operating performance.

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