Insuring a Tesla

In many ways, Tesla cars are still prototypes. The brand is extremely wet behind the ears. It was only founded a few short years ago, and its primary purpose is to prove to the world that completely electric cars are viable options. This admirable goal is somewhat overshadowed by the extremely high price tag of the brand's main automobile, the Roadster. However, there is no question that Tesla is making a lot of history. If you'd like to be among the very few people who own one of their cars, you should be prepared to spend a small fortune. The company is debuting a more affordable vehicle in the middle of 2012, but it is still going to be on the expensive end of the scale. Either way, you can expect to pay a lot to protect one. Official data about the average cost to insure a Tesla is not available, but the cars' high price tags ensure that you will have to pay a lot.

The Beginnings of Tesla

The history of the automaker is extremely brief. When compared with most of today's other automakers, Tesla Motors is still in its infancy. The company was officially founded in 2003. Several Silicon Valley investors came together to make the company viable. Its founders include Marc Tarpenning, Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk, who is the founder of PayPal. Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin are also involved. They deliberately made the Roadster an exceedingly high-end vehicle in the hopes that its components would trickle down to later models. The Model S, which has also been referred to as the Whitestar sports sedan, is slated to debut in the summer of 2012.

High Price Tags Ensure Exorbitant Insurance Expenses

The Tesla Roadster, which was the car that started it all, is a top-notch sports car and luxury automobile. It also operates completely off of electrical power. Its starting MSRP of around $115,000 should therefore come as no surprise. The car is extremely unique, and the designers deliberately made it as high-end as possible. The upcoming Model S sedan, which is also known as the Whitestar, is expected to value just below $60,000, which puts it within financial reach of a much broader array of drivers. You can expect that it will cost a lot to cover one of their vehicles.

Theft isn't a Problem at the Moment

There are exceedingly few Teslas on the road today. Not surprisingly, there's not a single one on the stolen vehicle reports that are published by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, or NICB. This is probably mostly due to the fact that these cars are so new and because they are so rare. You just don't see them around anywhere, so thieves don't have many opportunities to steal them. However, this isn't going to help bring down insurance expenses by a significant degree.

Safety Helps Drive Down Expenses

Organizations like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have not performed crash tests on the Roadster or the upcoming Whitestar. As expensive as these autos are, this is not unusual. The Roadster includes standard safety features like antilock brakes and traction control, and a rearview camera is also available. Whether they are safe or not, these vehicles are costly to protect, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.