“Insurance should no longer be an afterthought, and by offering a simple, seamless and high-quality car insurance experience from the moment our customers purchase their Mini, we can continue to invest in long-lasting relationships with our customers.”

Wrisk’s underwriting capacity for this product is provided by LV= Broker, which is partly owned by Allianz.

The launch of Mini Flex is the first project following Wrisk’s partnership agreement with Allianz Automotive in June."

AMOnline December 12th 2019

Talking of "Risk" - auto manufacturers are caught in a vice like strategic threat between the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and future ride-sharing rather than auto owning customers.

Manufacturers make only 4%-5% margins on EVs compared to 8% to 10% for combustion models. Whilst battery prices could come down the price of rare metals in them will be under rising pressure as the demand for EVs rises.

See "Lights flash red for electric cars" in The Times. 

Distributing insurance is a useful value-add for manufacturers to help offset declining manufacturing margins and partnerships like Wrisk/BMW could flourish.

Insurers themselves are looking at being leading partners in ecosystems providing the mobility needs of customers whether owners, ride-sharers or eventually booking an autonomous vehicle by the trip.

Or will the big data specialists step in and steal the margins and limelight? Google was a smidgeon away from buying Tesla at one stage- an EV manufacturer not lumbered by legacy factories and assembly lines for petrol/diesel vehicles. 

Reinsurers are innovating at pace as well as they seek out profitable opportunities. See "The future of insurance is happening without insurance firms".

Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple or the Chinese giants are all poised to wrest control of the value chain from auto manufacturers and insurers that do not innovate fast enough.

Meanwhile congratulations to BMW, Wrisk and Allianz Automotive.