JLR urges insurers to abandon ‘traditional’ underwriting to win OEM partnerships

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has called on insurers to move beyond traditional underwriting models and adopt more flexible approaches if they want to remain attractive partners for original vehicle manufacturers (OEMs). 

Speaking at the Insurance Innovators Summit on 4 November 2026, JLR insurance product manager Samantha Bartlett-Shaw said OEMs were looking for insurers that understood their commercial objectives and could help deliver a seamless customer experience.

“Insurers are so traditional,” she said.

“Traditional doesn’t exist in the world moving forward.”

Bartlett-Shaw explained that while manufacturers’ primary goal remained selling vehicles, trends such as electrification, autonomous driving and changing customer expectations were making insurance partnerships increasingly important.

She argued that insurers needed to think beyond conventional underwriting and claims processes and focus on supporting OEMs’ wider customer propositions.

“The problem is insurers want to underwrite risk traditionally,” she said.

“We need imagination. We need those insurers and insurance partners, tech partners and claims departments to start thinking about what the OEM needs going forward.”

Insurers warned against ‘cherry-picking’

Bartlett-Shaw also warned insurers against using connected vehicle data solely to improve risk selection, arguing that manufacturers wanted insurance propositions that enabled more customers to access cover.

“What OEMs do not want is cherry-picked underwriting,” she said.

”What we can’t [do] is [be] approached by anybody to say we want to dynamically underwrite insurance so we can select for and select against. No OEM is going to back that,” she said. 

She added that insurance should not become a barrier to vehicle ownership and that manufacturers were focused on helping customers buy and enjoy their vehicles.

Looking ahead, Bartlett-Shaw said autonomous vehicles would create new challenges around liability, maintenance responsibilities and data sharing, making closer collaboration between insurers and manufacturers essential.

Asked what capability insurers should prioritise to become preferred OEM partners, she highlighted underwriting flexibility.

“The value chain starts right at the offset of somebody buying a vehicle,” she said.

“They need to have that dynamic thinking, be able to tailor their products, be able to look at it from the OEM perspective to build the loyalty.”