Seems that Tesla’s “cheap” EV, the Model 3, is about to get hit with a rather large insurance premium increase. Yeah, the “cheap” ones go for about $60 thou but the premiums are going up by 30% because people crash them and they are expensive to fix. Hybrids and EV’s are generally higher to insure but, wow!
Seems like an unexpected cost levied on the new technology in general but on Tesla in particular. Thoughts?
Makes sense because parts are hard to get and repair centers must be certified by Tesla to maintain warranty. I don’t think it’s due to new technology. The Chevy Bolt doesn’t appear to cost that much to insure compared to a similar gas car.
Here is the prior report from HDLI and IIHS on the high claims rate and high cost per claim for the Model S (the big brother of the Model 3). Insurers look at the actual cost insure a given model. Cost of the vehicle (High for Model 3. Starts at $49K. Newest trim is $83K fully loaded). Miles driven (Higher than average for other Tesla models). Accident rate (Higher than average according to the story). and cost to repair (High for all Teslas). There are often some big surprises with regard to insurance. The Corvette for example. Here’s a story on that topic if interested. With anything that is not overwhelmingly positive related to Tesla, the fans always find a conspiracy.
Maybe part of the fee hike is due to the weird auto-pilot crashes these cars get involved in for some reason. They seem to especially like the crash into fire trucks.
8.25.18
Tesla driver arrested for drunk driving after blaming Autopilot for crashing into a fire truck
"A Tesla Model S crashed into yet another fire truck resulting in two injuries in San Jose earlier today.
The driver said that he “thought the Model S was on Autopilot”, but he was arrested under suspicion of drunk driving.
I have to say “yet another fire truck” because it is the third accident involving Tesla vehicles reportedly on Autopilot and fire trucks this year alone."
https://electrek.co/2018/08/25/tesla-model-s-autopilot-crash-fire-truck-drunk/
Always gives me a chuckle… The first Corvette owner pampers it and drives it very little because he likes saying he OWNS a Corvette more than he likes driving it! The second owner puts on the miles because he treats it like a used car and the third owner thrashes it like Corvette Engineering intended.
Corvettes used to be at the top of the list for single car accident fatalities. Not sure if they still are. Owners “seeing what she’ll DO” and wrapping it around a tree when they run out of skill about the time they run out of road.
I seldom see Corvettes being driven by people who drive like absolute jackasses. People don’t even put loud mufflers on them. Maybe just having the car says it all and these guys don’t feel they have anything to prove, like the boy racers in their loud exhaust pipe Honda Civics do.
Exactly! I too have never seen a Corvette driver behaving like a jerk.
Uuhhm… I had loud mufflers on MY Corvette but I was the 3rd owner thrashed it as intended. A buddy of mine had loud mufflers on his Corvette, too. A 1st owner car to boot! Actually we claimed he was robbed by Flowmaster because the car was so loud those mufflers just HAD to be empty! 
My '69 vette w/427 and factory sidepipes doesn’t need any exhaust changes to sound plenty tough! In fact, I’ve never had a vette where the factory pipes didn’t have an excellent exhaust note. One thing, I never owned an 80s vette however, skipped that decade. I have a built up naturally aspirated 454 w/headers running in a Chevelle with basically stock mufflers. Was leaving an event one night and I heard afterwards that as I putted out onto the road, people were saying “he needs mufflers with more bark on that thing”. Once I got on the road and took off, they changed their opinions 
They make a statement when I want to but are not annoying otherwise…
Speaking of corvettes…