If you are a bike owner in India or looking to buy a new bike, it would help to have a bike insurance policy. It will be helpful to you in many ways. Firstly, having a bike insurance policy will help you be compliant with Indian traffic laws, as it is compulsory for all bike owners to have at least third-party coverage under Indian Motor Vehicles Act 1988.
Secondly, bike insurance gives you financial protection against the losses you may suffer due to your involvement in an accident. In such a situation, you need not worry about paying for the repair cost; the insurer will compensate you.
If you get involved in an accident, you must first inform the insurer about it and file a claim within a specific period to receive compensation from the company. Once the insurer approves your claim, the insurer will do the final financial settlement as per the policy’s terms and conditions.
However, you must know that the insurer may not always approve your claim. They can reject the claim and deny the compensation on different grounds. One such condition is the bike having a high engine capacity.
How does the engine capacity influence the bike insurance policy?
To understand why the insurance company has rejected your claim on the grounds of high engine capacity, you must first know how higher engine capacity or CC (cubic capacity) affects bike insurance in general. The engine CC determines the power output of the bike. If your bike has a high-capacity engine, it means it can achieve top speeds, and your bike would have better and more powerful performance than other bikes with low-capacity engines.
This is why insurance companies consider a bike’s CC as one of the important factors to determine the premium rate. If your bike engine has higher CC, you are likely to pay a higher premium than others.
Can an insurance company reject your claim because of the high bike engine capacity?
In most cases, the bike’s engine capacity has no bearing on the claim. The only possible reason why an insurer may reject your claim for your having a high-capacity engine is if such a condition is explicitly mentioned in your policy papers.
When you purchase a new bike insurance policy, the insurer considers different aspects of the bike before deciding on the premium. As a buyer, you must also do your due diligence and thoroughly read the policy’s terms and conditions before signing the documents. This will help you avoid facing any issues with the insurer during claim settlement.
Some insurance companies may avoid offering coverage for bikes with high-capacity engines because such bikes are more prone to accidents, which increases the possibility of a claim. Besides, most of the bikes with high-capacity engines are imported, and their repair costs are very high.
That said, most of the insurers in India do not discriminate against high-engine capacity bikes. If you get involved in an accident, chances are high that you may get injured, and you want to file a claim for a personal accident, which is mandatory coverage offered by all insurers. So, just because your bike has a high-capacity engine does not mean the insurer will reject your claim application; you will get compensation.
