Model S Plaid Insurance

[MrAliG]

Considering all the threads re insurance costs for the M3P.

Can't wait to see the first quotes for the Model S Plaid.

Historically high prices have limited the number of extremely fast cars on the road. There are a few cars in the US with similar top speed, slower accelerating still, that cost less than $100k but very few cars in the UK have similar performance for the money. I have a feeling that insurance companies don't like less expensive very fast cars. At least they are hard to steal.

 

[Foucault]

When you get into the very expensive car category (£100k+) your are into the specialist high value/high performance insurance market, so won’t come cheap. Then again it isn’t cheap for the likes of Ferrari or Aston Martin and you see plenty of those around. As the model S plaid isn’t due until the end of 2022 in the UK, so probably some time in 2023/24 given that Tesla are normally late for everything, we’ve got a bit of a wait to find out.

 

[MrAliG]

I have a 911 which was over 100k new, although not as fast as a Model S Plaid. It costs a lot less than my Model X to insure, about 1/3 of the price.

I think that "proper" sports cars do quite low mileages and tend to be well looked after so are cheapish to insure relative to their value.

Somehow I have visions of this being perceived as something like a modern day RS Cosworth.

I have looked at the cost difference for a Model X P versus my 75D and I think it is around 20-30% more to insure. I wouldn't be surprised to see 50-100% more for a Plaid.

Just a fun discussion as I always hear people complaining about insurance prices.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Hope Tesla introduce a Plaid 3

Adding £8k to the S Plaid was very kind of Tesla. Don’t suppose that £100 reservation locked in the price.

 

[MrBadger]

Adding £8k to the S Plaid was very kind of Tesla. Don’t suppose that £100 reservation locked in the price.

Isn't it still cheaper than the headline launch price?

We didn't get any price lock after paying our £2k reservation fee on the Model 3. That only came into effect once we had configured the car and paid a further £1k booking fee.

 

[Foucault]

@MrAliG I think you are right about proper sports cars not being used much as I know a few people with high end cars and they tend to be sunny day weekend toys.

In terms of the difference in insurance from a 911 to a model X there will be a few things that count against the X apart from usage. One is the lack of competition as there aren’t that many insurers who will Tesla cars. That may change in future as electric cars become the norm. Then there’s the lack of repair centres for electric cars in general and Tesla in particular. Again this may improve with more electric cars but maybe not for the Tesla S and X given the high amount of aluminium in their construction which only a small number of companies can deal with. Finally there’s the time it takes to get hold of replacement parts which can take weeks compared to a few days for other cars, which pushes up costs if the insurer is covering a hire car.

 

[jbcarioca]

Not the UK, but...
I just received the quote for my new Plaid. It ended out being almost the same as for my 2018 Model 3 Performance. Long non-claim history helps, but I was surprised that the new one at twice the price of the old ended out the same price. My underwriter said that the safety features, low liability claims and low accident rate ended out having more effect than did vehicle repair costs given an accident. I have not actually seen the components of the quotation, just the nearly unchanged total. Hopefully it might work that way in the UK also.

 

[Darmie]

It's always best to compare pricing with insurance companies with different vehicles. Each market will have different pricing based on their own historical data per vehicle.

 

[gangzoom]

@MrAliG I think you are right about proper sports cars not being used much as I know a few people with high end cars and they tend to be sunny day weekend toys.

In terms of the difference in insurance from a 911 to a model X there will be a few things that count against the X apart from usage. One is the lack of competition as there aren’t that many insurers who will Tesla cars. That may change in future as electric cars become the norm. Then there’s the lack of repair centres for electric cars in general and Tesla in particular. Again this may improve with more electric cars but maybe not for the Tesla S and X given the high amount of aluminium in their construction which only a small number of companies can deal with. Finally there’s the time it takes to get hold of replacement parts which can take weeks compared to a few days for other cars, which pushes up costs if the insurer is covering a hire car.

Our X cost £350 to insure fully comp for 12k miles a year, I would hardly call that expensive.

 

[CountvonC]

Hope Tesla introduce a Plaid 3

Adding £8k to the S Plaid was very kind of Tesla. Don’t suppose that £100 reservation locked in the price.

It did.

 

[FenC]

Although I'm in NZ now I'm from the UK, and I insured - let's go with "a number" - of high performance cars before I left. What I found as I worked my way through the ranks from what I could afford as a 17 year old, through French hot hatches (and while they were still good enough, I went back for more) to German Uber-wagons and low-end exotica, it seemed to me that the hatches carried the highest premiums per BHP / £ of value.

At 26 I went from a Renault 5 GT Turbo to a 911 Carrera 3.2 Sport at over three times the value, and while the premium increased a little as I recall it was only a little. Moving forward a few years I had a 306 GTI-6 and a Carrera 4 at the same time and paid pretty much the same for both - limited miles on the 911, but not to the point I couldn't use it. An original RS6 Avant with a remap and a supercharged Mini Cooper S were also pretty similar when I had both of those at the same time. I also had a 944 Turbo tuned to 400BHP and set up for track days with two sides of an A4 sheet of mods that totalled around three times the car's value, which was very reasonably priced - comparable to when it was standard in fact.

I believe cars that made it into group 20 (is that still how it's done?) and get a bespoke quote were often cheaper to insure than cars that fell in the group 16-18 range - presumably those were crashed more, and possibly that was due to affordability.

I did think of the RS Cosworth when I read the first post in this thread, but the issue with those was that they were so attractive to thieves, and security was pretty poor in the late eighties.

Anyway, I have no idea how the S Plaid will be viewed by insurers in the UK, but I fear it will be high in NZ. Insurance here is generally laughably cheap compared with the UK, but that's largely because it is not mandatory, so if the quote is too high the customer has the option of just not bothering at all. Our M3 SR+ is the most expensive car to insure I've ever had in NZ, coming in fully 40% more than a 550BHP supercharged V8 Aussie "Ute", which was insured for quite a lot more than the value of the M3. That's equivalent to about £1,000 for comparison with what folks pay in the UK.

 

[MrAliG]

Hello New Zealand. It’s a lovely place.

We basically have the same system although they now have 50 groups with a letter added depending on whether the car has good security.

This was supposed to increase the range of groupings, but a large number of cars are in group 50 including my Model X 75D.

You are exactly right in what you say and this is what I was thinking. Would the Plaid be considered in the same exulted company as the RS Cosworth for example? My 911C4S costs hardly anything to insure and half what the X costs. I think more exottic cars are less of a worry as the owners are expected to be more careful.

The S is harder to steal which helps but has that same combination of performance and relatively modest price that I think insurers are wary of. Although maybe with it being over 100k it is actually the Model 3 which is in the sweet spot for worrying the insurance companies.

 

[94jdh]

Although I'm in NZ now I'm from the UK, and I insured - let's go with "a number" - of high performance cars before I left. What I found as I worked my way through the ranks from what I could afford as a 17 year old, through French hot hatches (and while they were still good enough, I went back for more) to German Uber-wagons and low-end exotica, it seemed to me that the hatches carried the highest premiums per BHP / £ of value.

At 26 I went from a Renault 5 GT Turbo to a 911 Carrera 3.2 Sport at over three times the value, and while the premium increased a little as I recall it was only a little. Moving forward a few years I had a 306 GTI-6 and a Carrera 4 at the same time and paid pretty much the same for both - limited miles on the 911, but not to the point I couldn't use it. An original RS6 Avant with a remap and a supercharged Mini Cooper S were also pretty similar when I had both of those at the same time. I also had a 944 Turbo tuned to 400BHP and set up for track days with two sides of an A4 sheet of mods that totalled around three times the car's value, which was very reasonably priced - comparable to when it was standard in fact.

I believe cars that made it into group 20 (is that still how it's done?) and get a bespoke quote were often cheaper to insure than cars that fell in the group 16-18 range - presumably those were crashed more, and possibly that was due to affordability.

I did think of the RS Cosworth when I read the first post in this thread, but the issue with those was that they were so attractive to thieves, and security was pretty poor in the late eighties.

Anyway, I have no idea how the S Plaid will be viewed by insurers in the UK, but I fear it will be high in NZ. Insurance here is generally laughably cheap compared with the UK, but that's largely because it is not mandatory, so if the quote is too high the customer has the option of just not bothering at all. Our M3 SR+ is the most expensive car to insure I've ever had in NZ, coming in fully 40% more than a 550BHP supercharged V8 Aussie "Ute", which was insured for quite a lot more than the value of the M3. That's equivalent to about £1,000 for comparison with what folks pay in the UK.

It would still be advisable to have third party insurance though to cover you for the other vehicle(s) if it's your fault.

 

[Durzel]

I suspect like a lot of things it will ramp up dramatically depending on age and experience.

My 458 was £1300 when I was 37 (0 points/claims, 5k miles pa), but that was an agreed value policy with a specialist. I couldn't get insurance at the usual places because they didn't insure that sort of value car, as @Foucault said.

I would not be surprised to see prices north of £1k (and/or a similar excess) for insuring a Plaid S. Obviously that might come down a bit if you're older, but it is a 2 second 0-60 car.. I imagine there will be quite a lot of "watch this" drama involving it.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I had a MS P90DL and it was about £500, my Aston Martin was on a lower mileage policy and £450, my M3 LR is £400. You get to a point where you can be seen as low risk and the car is almost academic. If you’re younger, dodgy postcode or a poor driving history then I imagine e the price goes through the roof

 

[FenC]

It would still be advisable to have third party insurance though to cover you for the other vehicle(s) if it's your fault.

Oh absolutely - everything I have / had is insured, but there is the option to just say "I won't bother" which shifts the power in price negotiation a bit.

I had a MS P90DL and it was about £500, my Aston Martin was on a lower mileage policy and £450, my M3 LR is £400. You get to a point where you can be seen as low risk and the car is almost academic. If you’re younger, dodgy postcode or a poor driving history then I imagine e the price goes through the roof

I have to say I'm surprised by those Tesla figures. Our M3 SR+ is close to £1k equivalent - admittedly it's effectively any driver, even young drivers (with a bigger excess), but that isn't because we wanted any driver it's just the only option available. Unlimited mileage etc., but again not because we needed that.

Sort of undermines my statement earlier, though insurance for more "normal" cars here seemed cheaper than in the UK when I first moved and hadn't lost touch - we really seem to be paying a lot of "Tesla tax" at the moment.

 

[94jdh]

Oh absolutely - everything I have / had is insured, but there is the option to just say "I won't bother" which shifts the power in price negotiation a bit.


I have to say I'm surprised by those Tesla figures. Our M3 SR+ is close to £1k equivalent - admittedly it's effectively any driver, even young drivers (with a bigger excess), but that isn't because we wanted any driver it's just the only option available. Unlimited mileage etc., but again not because we needed that.

Sort of undermines my statement earlier, though insurance for more "normal" cars here seemed cheaper than in the UK when I first moved and hadn't lost touch - we really seem to be paying a lot of "Tesla tax" at the moment.

On a separate note, I'm usually in Palmy - and the network of chargers were small, looks like it's improved somewhat as the first one I spotted was Taupo.

 

[FenC]

On a separate note, I'm usually in Palmy - and the network of chargers were small, looks like it's improved somewhat as the first one I spotted was Taupo.

OT response, but yes; it's getting better. New Plymouth is getting Supercharges soon I believe and there are enough that we have driven our SR+ from Auckland to Welly and back with zero stress. It's hardly the density I see on other countries' maps yet though.

 

[CMc1]

Hopefully Tesla’s own UK car insurance will be in operation by time the car is released.