Tesla Insurance is the in-house auto insurance program built by Tesla, Inc. for owners of its electric vehicles. The program launched in California in 2019 and has since grown into an operation with its own licensed carriers. Most states price policies using real-time driving data, but California, the program’s largest market, prices coverage using traditional risk factors instead because of state rules.
Website: tesla.com/insurance
Head office address: 1 Tesla Road, Austin, Texas 78725
Founded: 2019, California
Company type: wholly owned insurance operation of Tesla, Inc., held under Tesla Insurance Holdings, LLC and underwritten through Tesla Insurance Company, Tesla Property & Casualty, Inc., and Tesla General Insurance, Inc.
Parent: Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA)
Regions served: a growing list of US states, beginning with California
Tesla’s push into insurance started years before the company underwrote its own policies. The automaker first worked with outside insurers, then moved toward a self-branded product as its safety data and vehicle telematics matured.
Each step in this timeline points toward the same goal. The company has steadily shifted from outside insurance partners toward a fully self-owned underwriting operation.
The Safety Score sits at the center of how the program prices policies. Rather than leaning on age, gender, or credit history, it scores drivers each month using factors such as hard braking, aggressive turning, and following distance.
This usage-based structure sets the program apart from most traditional carriers, which set rates largely at the start of a policy term and adjust them only at renewal.
Tesla Insurance supports a broader strategy: use the automaker’s own vehicle and driving data to lower the total cost of ownership for its cars. Growth has been steady but uneven.
In 2024, the firm’s licensed insurance carriers reported a net underwriting loss over the first nine months of the year, a sign of the costs that come with scaling a new insurance operation. The following year, California regulators cited claims-handling delays at Tesla Insurance and its former underwriting partner, State National Insurance Company, and directed both firms to address the backlog.
The shift to self-underwriting in California and the addition of Florida both point to a company still working out the regulatory and operational groundwork behind its insurance ambitions, one state and one carrier transition at a time.
They include a new tech chief and a new finance chief
Musk's company faces threats of fines, revocation of license
Flawed risk assessments led to claims of inflated premiums
The car maker has dabbled with its own insurance – now it's offering a saving until March 17th – but not in the US
One small step for Tesla, one giant leap for insurance?
