Gratifying achievement for Volkswagen Autoversicherung (VW AV): the car insurance company, a joint venture between Volkswagen Financial Services and Allianz launched around twelve years ago, took first place in the "Autohaus" Insurance Monitor 2025. A market research institute, commissioned by the specialist magazine for trends in automotive sales, surveyed dealers in the "German brands" category and received a great deal of positive feedback. In this interview, Simona Loges, member of the board of Volkswagen Autoversicherung, and Ingar Wieben, Head of Sales of Volkswagen Autoversicherung, discuss the importance of their company as a customer loyalty instrument as well as its unique selling point in a highly competitive market.
What does the award in the "Autohaus" Insurance Monitor tell us?
Simona Loges: Above all, it shows that our dealer partners are satisfied with our product and the collaboration with us – we're really happy to hear that, thank you very much! This is consistent with an article in "Autobusiness", a trade journal aimed at the managers at Volkswagen and Audi dealerships, which explicitly describes Volkswagen Autoversicherung from a brand perspective as a customer loyalty tool with great potential. We're proud of this too – it's another accolade for our outstanding team. This motivates us to perform even better and to fulfill our increasingly important role as a customer retention element, as an instrument for maintaining customer loyalty, for the dealers. Securing accident business in their workshops is our top priority.
How exactly do dealers and service centers benefit from Volkswagen Autoversicherung?
Ingar Wieben: Every Volkswagen Autoversicherung insurance policy sold by sales or service staff leads to follow-up business for the dealership in the event of a claim. I'm thinking, for example, of the contractually agreed repair in a VW Group workshop or the rental car as temporary replacement. For dealers, this is a great opportunity to turn Volkswagen Autoversicherung customers into loyal customers of their own business. And in increasingly tough times caused by the lower maintenance requirements of electric vehicles, it's a good way to generate more after-sales and workshop revenue.
Ingar Wieben: "Every Volkswagen Autoversicherung insurance policy sold by sales or service staff leads to follow-up business for the dealership in the event of a claim."
What sets Volkswagen Autoversicherung apart?
Ingar Wieben: Volkswagen Autoversicherung has a unique selling point in Germany's extremely price-sensitive insurance market: we grant a discount of up to 30 percent on liability insurance premiums for safety-relevant driver assistance systems – that's a reduction that can make a tangible financial difference each year. Specifically, this means that the more modern electronic helpers like emergency braking, turning, or lane-keeping assistants are installed in the car, the cheaper it becomes for our customers. Around 80 percent of our policyholders currently benefit from this unique pricing feature – and the trend is rising.
Germans typically start checking comparison websites in November and also look at car insurance. How competitive is Volkswagen Autoversicherung when you consider price and performance together?
Ingar Wieben: Volkswagen Autoversicherung is absolutely competitive – we can say that with complete confidence. Our prices are on par with even those of the big providers with their workshop-binding tariffs. And when it comes to service, we're pleased to note that in the event of damage, vehicles insured with us are always repaired in Group workshops by highly qualified specialists using genuine parts only.
Simona Loges: "Our Volkswagen car insurance is a cornerstone of our strategy MOBILITY2030."
Where do you sell the most insurance policies – online or through sales and service teams in dealerships?
Simona Loges: The sales teams in the dealer showrooms belonging to the brands Volkswagen, Audi, Seat/Cupra, Škoda, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles remain by far the largest sales channel for our Volkswagen Autoversicherung policies. That's the case even though we've improved our online capabilities for concluding contracts and have also bridged the gap between taking out a policy at the dealership and doing so at home on a laptop or smartphone. For example, it is now straightforward for customers to start filling out the insurance application together with the salesperson at the dealership and then complete any missing data online at home later. We therefore see our motor insurance as a hybrid product that can be concluded online or in the traditional way at the so-called point of sale in the car dealership – a difference that sets us apart from many of our competitors. We now want to further expand the traditional route by selling more and more insurance policies through the service teams. This is one of the goals we've set ourselves for 2026.
Finally, within the wider context, could you summarize the role of Volkswagen Autoversicherung in the VW FS corporate strategy MOBILITY2030?
Simona Loges: Volkswagen Autoversicherung continues to be a cornerstone of MOBILITY2030, which is precisely why the Insurance Growth Plan 2030 has been in place for several years now. This growth plan encompasses insurance solutions for vehicles and their users throughout their entire mobility lifetime. We believe we're on the right track: we are currently recording a 25 percent increase in the number of contracts and are striving to continue this growth further. In addition, we see ourselves as a source of ideas and inspiration for the car insurance business in other markets and are happy to share best practices with them, such as the discounts for driver assistance systems that we've already mentioned. In fact, colleagues from our international department are already in talks with several other countries with the aim of introducing these discounts there as well.
Thank you for the insights!
