Smartcar and Paydrive partner to bring pay-per-mile insurance to EV owners in Sweden

Smartcar is partnering with Paydrive to bring fair and affordable mileage-based insurance to electric vehicle owners in Sweden. Paydrive uses Smartcar’s mileage verification API to determine the number of miles driven by Tesla owners across the country.

Paydrive charges policyholders by the mile

Paydrive is the first insurance startup to offer pay-per-mile auto insurance in Sweden. Founder and CEO Andreas Broström started the company out of frustration with unfair auto insurance premiums that had little to do with a driver’s actual risk. When calculating insurance rates, traditional insurers focus mainly on so-called non-driving factors like a policyholder’s age, place of residence, and car model. A policyholder’s monthly mileage and driving behavior have little effect on their premium.

Since Paydrive was founded in 2016, the company has provided Sweden’s first and only usage-based auto insurance product, making insurance fairer, more affordable, and easier to understand. On top of a monthly base fee, Paydrive’s policyholders pay a small fee for each mile they drive. A car owner’s monthly premium thus varies depending on how much they actually use their vehicle.

“Paydrive’s mission aligns closely with ours,” said Smartcar CEO Sahas Katta. “Their approach to mileage-based insurance makes mobility more accessible and more equitable, and it even encourages environmentally-friendly driving behavior. We’re extremely proud to partner with Paydrive.”

Smartcar’s technology allows Paydrive to go hardware-free

Tesla owners all across Sweden can now join Paydrive’s new pay-per-mile program that doesn’t require any aftermarket hardware accessories. Thanks to Smartcar’s technology, Tesla owners can now share their vehicle’s odometer reading within just a few clicks from the Paydrive app. After obtaining user consent, Paydrive can retrieve a vehicle’s mileage directly from the instrument cluster using Smartcar’s mileage verification API.

In addition to verifying their customers’ odometer reading, Paydrive uses the Smartcar location API to periodically check each vehicle’s location. Depending on the types of roads that a policyholder most frequently drives on, Paydrive can adjust their pricing to reflect the corresponding accident risk.

“When we were looking for a user-friendly and cost-effective way to verify a policyholder’s mileage, Smartcar’s solution really stood out,” said Paydrive CEO Andreas Broström. “Having access to an API that directly integrates with each vehicle is a huge advantage for us. On top of that, Smartcar’s docs and SDKs made it easy for our engineers to implement.”

The new pay-per-mile program is available to all Tesla owners in Sweden starting today, with plans to expand the offering to additional vehicle brands in the future.