December 19, 2022

Tesla insurance - money saving guide

In Germany, every vehicle owner is legally obliged to take out motor vehicle liability insurance for their Tesla. Without Tesla insurance, there is no registration. It therefore makes sense to think about the best insurance to choose for your Model Y or Model 3 before picking up your Tesla.

If you want to insure a Tesla, you have to make sure that the insurance is also designed for electric cars. Because it is here in particular that you can always find cheap bait offers that only write in the small print that, for example, the battery - the most expensive component in the Tesla - is not insured.

We have researched, talked to many Tesla owners and collected all information about Tesla insurance in this article. This saves you the research and allows you to make a well-informed decision when choosing your insurance.

Tesla liability vs. partially comprehensive vs. fully comprehensive insurance
What do you have to look out for with Tesla insurance?
Tesla insurance cost
Where can I insure my Tesla?
Changing Tesla insurance - is it worth it?

The essentials in brief

In this article you will find out all the details about the common Tesla vehicle insurance policies such as liability, partially comprehensive and fully comprehensive. We will also explain to you what you should pay attention to in detail with your Tesla insurance and how you can use the Check24 insurance calculator to find the cheapest insurer individually calculated for you.

Tesla liability vs. partially comprehensive vs. fully comprehensive insurance

Motor vehicle liability insurance covers the costs of an accident that is your fault, but only pays for damage caused to the opposing party. If there is also damage to your Tesla Model S, 3, X or Model Y, you also need comprehensive insurance. But what is important in partially comprehensive insurance and what is important in fully comprehensive insurance for your Tesla? What is reimbursed and what is not? We have summarized it all for you here.

Tesla Liability Insurance

Liability insurance is required by law for every vehicle in Germany, including your Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. If you cause an accident with your Tesla, Tesla liability insurance covers the damage suffered by other road users. It doesn't matter whether it's a car driver, a moped rider or a pedestrian.

Property damage to third-party property, such as a knocked-down garden fence, is also covered. Tesla liability insurance, on the other hand, does not reimburse the repair costs for your own Tesla.

Tip: You can claim the liability portion of your Tesla insurance in your tax return.

Tesla collision damage waiver

With Tesla partially comprehensive insurance, the insurer also covers costs that arise on your own Tesla Model Y or Model 3, in contrast to liability. This usually includes theft of the vehicle or parts of it, as well as burglary. It also covers the costs of glass breakage, for example cracks in the windscreen.

Damage caused to your Tesla by storms - such as lightning, hail, flooding or storms - will also be reimbursed. In most cases, however, in the event of storm damage, the costs of your Tesla Model 3 or Model Y will only be covered from wind force 8. Again, it is important to read the fine print.

Damage caused by explosion or fire as well as short circuits in the wiring of your Tesla are also insured. Marten bites and wildlife accidents are also covered, and depending on the tariff, the consequences of roof or snow avalanches are also reimbursed.

Tesla comprehensive insurance

For new vehicles such as your Tesla Model S, 3, X or Y, we recommend taking out fully comprehensive insurance. This Tesla insurance includes all the services of partially comprehensive insurance - but supplemented by appropriate protection for accidents that you are responsible for.

If you have an accident with your Tesla Model 3, the fully comprehensive insurance will pay for the repair of your car. Damage to your Tesla caused by vandalism is also covered, for example if unknown persons scratch the paintwork of your Tesla or damage the side mirror. Fully comprehensive insurance also applies if the insured has an accident and the person responsible commits a hit-and-run.

Tip: Make sure that your Tesla fully comprehensive insurance also covers damage to the battery. We've heard from some Tesla drivers that they got cheaper deals that didn't include battery insurance.

For whom is Tesla partially comprehensive insurance worthwhile?

Which comprehensive insurance makes sense for your Tesla usually depends on the value of the vehicle and the risk of damage. Comprehensive insurance is generally recommended for new car owners and novice drivers.

Since older Teslas are usually still worth many thousands of euros, we generally recommend fully comprehensive insurance. Partial casco insurance should only be taken out if you are really willing to bear the full costs yourself, even in the event of a total loss to your Tesla.

Especially from the point of view that the battery is not normally included in the partially comprehensive insurance of a Tesla, we can only advise against it.

For whom is Tesla comprehensive insurance worthwhile?

In principle, comprehensive insurance makes sense for every Tesla driver. For new cars in particular, such Tesla insurance replaces the new price of the vehicle for the first 12 months. But even then you are simply best protected.

Fully comprehensive insurance is required in most cases for financed vehicles or Tesla leasing. A Tesla financed with a loan often serves as security for the lending bank, and if you buy your Tesla on lease, the lessor almost always requires comprehensive insurance.

If, on the other hand, your Tesla is already five to ten years old and has already lost a lot of value, it is of course at your discretion to take out comprehensive insurance.

What do you have to look out for with Tesla insurance?

The Tesla insurance for your Model Y or Model 3 should not only be cheap, but above all offer extensive protection. After all, the aim is that you are well protected in the event of damage and that you do not incur any major costs.

Most important insurance benefits for Tesla insurance:

The insurance benefits may vary depending on the provider and tariff. Below we have summarized the most important benefits of Tesla insurance for you.

Electric car

It is important for your Tesla that, in addition to the standard services of partial or fully comprehensive insurance, specific claims relating to your Tesla battery and the charging process are also insured. This includes, for example, damage and consequential damage caused by a short circuit or theft of the charging cable. For example, Stiftung Warentest recommends fully comprehensive insurance with all-risk coverage for an e-car.

Coverage amount

The amount of coverage is important in motor vehicle liability insurance. The statutory minimum sums insured are currently EUR 7.5 million for personal injury, EUR 1.22 million for property damage and EUR 50,000 for financial loss. You can usually get higher amounts of coverage for an additional charge.

Rental car

A rental car is an add-on to Tesla liability insurance. In some holiday countries, the statutory coverage amounts are very low. So make sure that the countries you like to travel to are sufficiently covered. Such an additional module of your Tesla insurance is also known as "Mallorca Police".

Protection against damage abroad

This is also an addition to your Tesla liability insurance. If you have an accident abroad with your Tesla Model Y through no fault of your own, your insurance company will take care of handling the damage with the foreign insurer. This saves you time and nerves.

Gross negligence

Gross negligence plays a role in Tesla partially comprehensive and fully comprehensive insurance. This point is often used by insurance companies to avoid having to pay for damage.

If you cause damage with your Tesla Model S, 3, X or Model Y through gross negligence (for example, because you ran a red light), the car insurance company has the right to either reduce your compensation or cancel it completely .

To avoid this, you can take out a “waiver of the objection of gross negligence” as an extra.

Replacement value compensation

This clause is important for partial and comprehensive insurance. Since new cars usually lose a lot of value over the first few kilometers, you often get less from your car insurance if an accident happens shortly after purchase.

For this reason, your policy for your Tesla should include compensation at new value and the period for this should be at least 12 months. The same applies if you buy a used Tesla, in which case the car insurance will replace the purchase price.

Consequential damage

Often, cheaper Tesla comprehensive insurance policies only cover direct damage, such as a cable bitten through by a marten. However, the resulting consequential damage can be much more expensive. Consequential damage to your Tesla should therefore also be insured.

Wild

With many tariffs in a partial casco insurance only accidents with so-called "furred game" are insured, these are, for example, deer, stags or wild boars. If you have an accident with another animal with your Tesla, this is not covered and the insurer does not have to pay. It is therefore advisable if “all animals” are covered in your policy.

Driver protection

If you have an accident with your Tesla and you are injured, damage will be covered by the motor vehicle liability insurance of the person at fault. However, these are only the costs incurred by the accident victim and not those for the person who caused the accident. This can be remedied by driver protection insurance or a corresponding supplement.

Downgrading after an accident

If someone causes an accident, it is downgraded, in many cases by several levels, which means that the no-claims bonus is significantly worse. Depending on the tariff, Tesla insurance will become significantly more expensive in the following years.

However, there is only a downgrade in motor vehicle liability and fully comprehensive insurance – but not in partially comprehensive insurance. This does not recognize any no-claims classes, because it primarily covers damage that the customer cannot influence through his driving style.

With the downgrading calculator from Stiftung Warentest, you can quickly and easily find out whether you should better take on the damage yourself after an accident or whether you should accept a downgrade.

Waiver of services:

Some tariffs for Tesla insurance include additional services that would actually be dispensable and only cost additional money.

Vignette

If the windscreen of your Tesla has to be replaced, the vignette attached there will also be replaced by the insurance company. However, due to the low costs, insurance cover is not necessary.

Ferry

Your Tesla is insured if the car is damaged or lost in a ferry accident. If you never use a ferry with your Tesla, you only pay extra here.

Mobile

With this clause, mobile phones left in your parked Tesla are insured against theft, but only if they are not visible from the outside. The higher costs that this creates in Tesla insurance are usually not worth the money.

Tesla insurance cost

On what factors does the cost of Tesla insurance depend?

The cost of Tesla insurance mainly depends on the following factors:

Type class and age of the Tesla
regional class
Current no-claims class
Use of the car, in particular annual mileage and type of parking space
Number of drivers and their age
workshop binding
payment of contributions
amount of deductible

How much does a partially comprehensive or fully comprehensive insurance for a Tesla Model 3 or Tesla Model Y cost?

Of course, we cannot guess the cost of comprehensive insurance for your Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, as it depends on the factors mentioned above. However, what we can say is that Tesla Model 3 fully comprehensive insurance is available from around 1,000 euros per year.

If you want to get a more accurate picture of what it will cost you to insure your Tesla Model Y, 3, S or X, you can use the following insurance calculator free of charge. Simply enter your vehicle data and you will receive a free Tesla insurance comparison:

Potential savings with Tesla insurance

If you want to save on your existing Tesla insurance, the first thing to do is to switch providers. Exchange bonuses often result in cheaper prices. But there are also a few other ways to save that you can take advantage of.

Excess

If you have Tesla comprehensive insurance, a deductible makes sense, up to the amount of which you take on the damage yourself. We recommend a deductible of 150 euros for partially comprehensive insurance and 300 euros for fully comprehensive insurance, which reduces your insurance costs.

Payment method

You can get a premium discount of up to five percent if you pay your Tesla insurance annually instead of monthly or quarterly.

Annual kilometers

It is also worth estimating the total number of kilometers likely to be driven as accurately as possible. Insurance companies give discounts here too.

Driver circle

If only you as the car owner drive your Tesla, it is significantly cheaper than if many additional people use the car. Especially when younger drivers are also to be insured.

Workshop binding

With a tariff with a workshop commitment, you undertake to only use partner workshops recommended by your vehicle insurance company after an accident. In return, discounts are granted by Tesla Insurance.

Where can I insure my Tesla?

With third-party providers

Due to the many factors mentioned that influence the cost of your Tesla insurance, it is advisable to carry out a comprehensive insurance comparison before taking out insurance, which takes all your individual characteristics into account.

We recommend the Check 24 insurance comparison, which you can find at https://www.check24.de/kfz-versicherung/ . There you can also compare insurance companies and their individual services. It's all completely free.

At Tesla

As early as 2019, Tesla announced that the carmaker also wanted to go under the insurer. For example, Tesla currently offers car insurance in 5 states in the USA, and there are already plans for Germany, although the offer is not yet on the market in this country.

Tesla's insurance model is based on actual driving data. The bonus of a Tesla driver is de facto calculated in real time. The key factor for the monthly premium is the so-called monthly calculated "safety score".

This is calculated based on 5 factors, which can have a positive or negative effect, depending on the situation:

Collision Warnings per 1,000 miles: Number of collision warnings
“Hard Braking”: How often a driver brakes suddenly or abruptly
"Aggressive turns": Sudden movements to the left or right
"Unsafe following": Your own speed, the speed of the vehicle in front of your own Tesla and the distance are measured. This is used to calculate the number of seconds it takes to react and stop if the vehicle in front suddenly brakes.
“Autopilot Forced Disable”: How often the autopilot disengages due to warnings.

As already mentioned, there is currently no insurance at Tesla even in Germany.

Changing Tesla insurance - is it worth it?

If you already have Tesla insurance, switching can often be worthwhile. The savings often result from the fact that providers offer new customer and switching discounts. Of course, you should pay attention to the special features of your insurance policy - and in particular the commitment periods.

However, as an insured person, you have the option of exercising a special right of termination in a large number of cases, for example if your insurer increases the contributions but the benefits remain the same. In this case, you must send your notice of cancellation to your insurer within 4 weeks of receiving notification of the premium increase. This special right of termination also applies in the event of a change of owner or vehicle.

To check what savings there are for you when you change Tesla insurance, you can simply make a comparison at Check24.

Bonus tip

Did you know that you can deduct the liability portion of your Tesla insurance for tax purposes? As a private individual, you can deduct a portion of the liability portion of your car insurance from your taxes, which also saves you a little money.

Now that you have read everything about Tesla insurance, we have of course also written other interesting articles for you. Here are other articles that might interest you.

Tesla purchase

Financing a Tesla

Tesla leasing Guide