Tesla’s goals are bigger than electric vehicles. Elon Musk’s industry disrupting automaker wants to change the way we buy, power, upgrade and drive said vehicles. And now, it also wants to change the way we insure them.
On Wednesday, the company launched its own car insurance program called, simply, Tesla Insurance. The announcement came via a blog post that describes the new offering as comprehensive coverage and claims management “designed to provide Tesla owners with up to 20% lower rates, and in some cases as much as 30%.” At the time of launch, it’s only available in California, but the company is working to expand coverage to other states.
The logic behind the lower prices hinges on the fact that “Tesla knows its vehicles best” — that is, better than your current insurance provider. But as CNET writes, “Like every other car insurance on offer, rates will be determined through a mix of driving history and other factors, but it apparently does not include driving data taken from owners’ vehicles.” So the basic premise is still the same, Musk hasn’t flipped the entire insurance industry on its head.
Fortunately, Tesla isn’t forcing anyone to buy their insurance, at least not at this point. Unfortunately, the coverage only applies to Tesla vehicles, so if you own multiple cars, trucks or SUVs, you’ll have to either stick with your current provider or manage two at the same time.
But no matter what problems the company has been experiencing, from solar panel fires to more and more competition, there’s still one thing they beat the competition at: their online interface. Tesla owners can request an insurance quote through the website quickly and easily.
Oh, actually, at the time of writing it looks like the insurance page is down. So maybe the do have too many plates spinning at once.
We're making some updates to Tesla Insurance and will be back online shortly.
— Tesla (@Tesla) August 28, 2019
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