The Cost of Assumption: Is Your Vehicle Still Actively Insured?

India has over 42 crore registered vehicles and a motor insurance industry worth nearly ₹1 lakh crore. Yet, one important challenge remains: ensuring that vehicles continue to have valid insurance year after year.

Consider purchasing a new two-wheeler. Insurance is included in the purchase process; the policy is issued, and the vehicle is ready for the road. A year later, the renewal reminder arrives. The owner checks the premium, considers other expenses, and postpones payment. Weeks pass, and eventually the policy expires.

Repeated across millions of vehicle owners, this creates a significant protection gap for India's motor insurance ecosystem.

The Scale of the Renewal Challenge

India's vehicle population represents a substantial opportunity and responsibility for the insurance industry.

Breakdown of vehicle types

Two-wheelers: Approximately 28.68 crore registered vehicles as of March 2025, representing around 73% of the reported vehicle population.
Cars, Jeeps and Taxis: Approximately 5 crore registered vehicles, which is about 34–35 cars per 1,000 people.

However, registered vehicles and vehicles with active insurance are not the same. A Moneycontrol report published in March 2026, citing government data presented in Parliament, also highlighted the scale of the uninsured vehicle problem. The challenge is not only to issue new policies but also to ensure that customers continue their coverage.

Why Do Vehicle Owners Skip Renewal?

“Nothing has ever happened.” Owners who have never made a claim may feel that the premium offers little immediate value.
“I forgot.” Missed reminders and insufficient follow-ups can result in policies lapsing.
“The premium is another expense.” Customers may postpone renewal when they do not clearly understand the protection they are paying for.
“Will the insurer even pay?” Difficult or delayed claims experiences can reduce customer confidence.
“I don't understand what I am renewing.” Customers may not distinguish between third-party (TP) and their own-damage (OD) cover.
“Renewal is inconvenient.” Rechecking vehicle details, comparing coverage, and arranging documents can make the process difficult.

These reasons show that renewal is not only a pricing challenge; it is also a customer engagement, communication, and process-management challenge.

India's Two Motor Insurance Renewal Phases

Phase 1 – New vehicles: TP continues, but OD needs renewal

From September 2018, new private cars were required to have three years of third-party (TP) insurance, while new two-wheelers were required to have five years of TP insurance. Under a bundled policy, own-damage (OD) cover was generally valid for only one year, requiring customers to renew OD while their multi-year TP cover remained active.

From August 2020, IRDAI withdrew the long-term package option combining TP and OD, while the long-term TP requirement continued. This created a situation where customers could retain TP cover but allow OD cover to lapse.

Phase 2 – Older vehicles: Both covers require attention

For older vehicles outside the new-vehicle long-term TP arrangement, TP is generally renewed annually. Customers who want protection against damage to their own vehicle must also renew OD, usually on an annual basis. Some owners allow both covers to expire, while others retain TP but do not renew OD.

Although TP is legally mandatory, an expired OD policy leaves the vehicle owner without own vehicle damage protection under that policy.

What Quantique Brings to the Renewal Ecosystem

For insurers, intermediaries, brokers, and dealerships, renewal is also an operational challenge. Quantique's technology solutions support different stakeholders across this journey.

For Insurance Companies (ICs)

Insure 360 supports policy lifecycle and distribution activities, including issuance, renewals, endorsements, payments and claims-related workflows. InsurTech CRM 360 helps organize customer information, quote generation, follow-ups, interaction tracking, and renewal reporting.

The Insurance Prediction Model supports analysis of risk, pricing and customer churn, helping insurers identify customer segments that may require additional engagement. Claims Management Solution supports digital claims workflows, documentation and process tracking, improving visibility into claims activities.

For Brokers and Intermediaries

Managing multiple customers, insurers, and renewal dates can become difficult when follow-ups are handled manually. InsurTech CRM 360 helps organize customer information, leads, quotes, calls, follow-ups and renewal tracking, giving teams better visibility into pending opportunities.

Insure 360 supports policy, payment and renewal workflows across authorized distribution partners, helping make customer engagement more structured and reducing dependence on disconnected manual processes.

For Dealerships and Automotive Businesses

A dealership relationship with a customer continues beyond vehicle delivery. DMS 360 supports dealership sales, service and management activities, while suitable integrations and authorized data access can help dealerships identify upcoming insurance renewal opportunities during customer interactions.

Vehicle Master Maps supports vehicle data mapping and standardization, helping improve information consistency across relevant automotive and insurance processes.

Connecting the Renewal Journey Through Q-Bridge

Renewal often involves insurer platforms, vehicle databases, payment systems, communication channels, and distribution applications. Q-Bridge, Quantique's ConnectCore, helps connect relevant systems and workflows.

It can support a connected renewal journey involving vehicle and policy information, renewal details, payment and policy delivery, including one-tap renewal experiences, subject to integrations, business rules and partner readiness. Read more about how it works in Beyond Middleware: How Q-Bridge Takes Enterprises from Idea to Live in 7 Days.

Making Renewal Easier Is the Way Forward

The best renewal experience should be simple: a timely reminder, clear coverage details, pre-filled vehicle information, convenient payment, and prompt policy delivery.

Better coordination between insurers, brokers, dealerships and technology providers can help reduce missed follow-ups and make renewal easier for customers.

People do not always skip insurance because they do not care. Sometimes, the process makes it easy to forget.

At Quantique, we build technology that helps businesses create more connected insurance journeys and support better renewal experiences.

Explore Quantique's insurance and automotive technology solutions: https://quantique.ai/products/

Sources and Further Reading:

NITI Aayog - Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero: Sectoral Insights, Transport
Supreme Court of India - S. Rajaseekaran v. Union of India, order dated 20 July 2018
IRDAI - Circular implementing the long-term third-party insurance framework, August 2018
IRDAI - Circular on withdrawal of long-term package policies combining TP and OD, June 2020
Moneycontrol - March 2026 report on uninsured vehicles in India, citing government data
Quantique Metadata - Products https://quantique.ai/products/