News
Could Tesla vandalism fuel higher insurance prices?
Experts say that vandalism against Tesla vehicles could make insurance companies increase rates—or drop coverage for the brand altogether.
Tesla owners have recently experienced a substantial uptick in vandalism events in protest of CEO Elon Musk and recent developments with the Trump administration, and some say that it could lead to higher insurance rates if it continues.
In a report on Sunday, Insurify Data Journalist Matt Brannon told Newsweek that increased vandalism against Tesla’s vehicles could make insurance companies proactively raise their rates in the future. He says that factors such as theft and vandalism are both major considerations for insurance companies when setting rates, though perhaps not to the extent that collisions are.
“If vandalism involving Tesla vehicles continues to rise and doesn’t go back down, we could see rates rise for comprehensive coverage in the future,” Brannon said.
Vandalism is typically covered by comprehensive policies, though Brannon and Bankrate Insurance Analyst Shannon Martin say that these won’t likely increase rates as much as collisions. However, after a lack of engine immobilizers in certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles made them susceptible to theft, sparking widespread TikTok and Instagram challenges in 2022 in which individuals would try to steal these cars, Martin explains that companies could even refuse to insure Tesla vehicles in extreme cases.
“As we have learned from the 2023 TikTok theft trend targeting certain model Kias and Hyundais, if these types of losses continue, carriers could refuse to offer coverage for Tesla vehicles altogether,” Martin explained.
A Tesla Model S falls prey to an apparent arson attack in Seattle’s Capitol City neighborhood.🔥
Fortunately, the Model S seemed to have tanked the arson attack, as its high voltage battery seemed fine after the incident.
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 14, 2025
READ MORE ON TESLA INSURANCE: Tesla launches insurance discount for FSD users in these two states
She also says that many other factors could cause insurance rates to rise organically across the industry, including impending tariffs from the Trump administration that have caused uncertainty in recent weeks. Factors such as high repair costs have also caused rate increases in the past few years, particularly for vehicles that are electric.
However, Martin says the recent string of vandalism against Tesla vehicles could cause even steeper rate hikes throughout 2025, even as some of the company’s vehicles are already fairly expensive to insure in some areas.
“Since the recent rise in vandalism is focused on Teslas and not other make vehicles, drivers who carry Tesla Insurance may see a higher premium hike than those who have coverage with other carriers, since the risk of loss isn’t as diversified,” she adds.
Brannon says that insurance rates for electric vehicles (EVs) increased twice as fast as those of gas vehicles in 2024, while full-coverage prices on Teslas have increased over the past few years. Newsweek also says it reached out to insurance companies including Allstate, Geico, Progressive, and State Farm, though no comment was given by the time of publishing.
Vandalism against Tesla vehicles in recent weeks
The news comes as Tesla owners have detailed significant increases to vandalism in recent weeks, as many have tried to protest and speak out against cuts from Musk and Trump’s newly developed government efficiency division.
In February, one Cybertruck owner in Massachusetts said he was getting death threats, yelling passersby, stickers placed on his vehicle, and broad cancellations of client appointments following Musk’s controversial salute at the Trump inauguration ceremony. As a result, the doctor, an immigrant from Syria, said he was considering moving away in hopes to escape the verbal and property attacks.
Tesla owners in Northern California a few weeks ago were left with notes on their cars saying to trade or sell them before February 12, or else it would be “open season.” An activist group called Students Against Nazi Extremism (SANE) claimed responsibility for the notes.
Last week, Musk also responded to a story in which a New York individual drew a Swastika on a person’s Cybertruck, saying that, “Naturally, he drives a Subaru.”
Superchargers have also been targeted in recent attacks, including fresh graffiti last month, with vandals writing the word “Nazi” on some charging posts in Utah along with drawing a Swastika. Tesla said in response that it planned to file charges against the vandals.
Widespread protests have also faced Tesla stores in recent weeks, with one in Oregon even being the victim of multiple rounds of gunfire, while multiple Cybertrucks in Seattle were set on fire—an event now being looked at by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Another string of vandalism and arson at a Tesla store in Colorado resulted in the arrest of two suspects in the past few weeks, after the site was repeatedly tagged with graffiti, some of which said “Nazi cars” on the front windows.
Tesla Cybercab units finally got a definitive date for when they will be able to be purchased by consumers, ending speculation regarding whether the fully autonomous vehicle would be available in the near term.
During Tesla’s third-quarter 2026 earnings call on October 21, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy said the company is aiming to begin delivering its purpose-built Cybercab robotaxi to customers before year-end.
🚨 In short, Cybercabs are slated to go to customers by end of the year. All units are going into Robotaxi fleet currently, per @larsmoravy
Cybercab will be “transport-as-a-service,” but vast majority of Cybercab will be “Tesla-owned,” @elonmusk says https://t.co/R8Qu8QWdmp
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
“We’re trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year, 2026,” Moravy said. He added that production is underway on the line at Gigafactory Texas, but “all of those are currently going to our own internal Robotaxi fleet.”
Moravy explained that as operations scale, Tesla will “mainly deliver fully designed autonomous vehicles to our customers,” with the Cybercab as the first such vehicle. Initial customer deliveries will start small while the company gains experience with delivery logistics, ownership models, fleet management, and operating autonomous vehicles outside its direct control.
CEO Elon Musk reinforced the limited nature of private sales, describing the Cybercab primarily as a “transport-as-a-service” offering rather than a personal ownership vehicle like the Model 3, Model Y, or upcoming Roadster. “The vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be Tesla-owned and transport-as-a-service,” Musk said.
The Cybercab is a two-seater vehicle developed by Tesla without a steering wheel or pedals. It relies completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite and has been in production since February. Early units have been put in Tesla’s Robotaxi service as of early September, when the company launched rides to the public. Tesla previously indicated it would aim to sell Cybercabs for about $30,000.
Unsupervised Full Self-Driving is expected to ship to consumer cars during Q2 2027, Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Head of AI, indicated during the call. Early buyers or fleet operators may receive vehicles whose autonomous operation remains geographically restricted due to lagging regulatory agencies. There are some hurdles that remain ahead of Cybercab deliveries.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the third quarter of 2026, marking a reasonable performance on the various financial metrics. Tesla still plans to hold a call that will field investor questions at 5:30 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. CT.
Here’s where Earnings came in:
- Total Revenues: $28.046 reported vs. $28.34B expected
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48 reported vs. $0.45 expected
- Operating Margin: 2.6 % reported vs. 2.5% expected
- Operating Income: $718M reported vs. $721M expected
- Free Cash Flow: $1.531B reported vs. ~-$4.51B expected
Tesla $TSLA Earnings Results:
Revenues: $28.046B
Non-GAAP EPS: $0.48
Operating Margin: 2.6%
Operating Income: $718M
FCF: $1.531B— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 21, 2026
Major Takeaways
Full Self-Driving (Supervised)
“FSD (Supervised)⁴ attach rate continued to grow, reaching over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America – our most mature market – a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. We believe that FSD is driving demand in markets where it is available, and we continue to work with regulators to get it approved in other markets.”
Tesla Semi
“We began volume production of Tesla Semi, our Class 8 heavy-duty truck. The top variant can go 500 miles at full 82,000 lbs gross combination weight while achieving an efficiency of 1.7 kWh/mile. That efficiency allows the Tesla Semi to use a third of the energy used by a comparable diesel truck to haul the same payload. In a transportation market where energy is one of the largest components of total cost per mile, this will provide a meaningful advantage to Tesla Semi operators.”
SI Compute
“We plan to reach 400 MW of SI training compute by the end of the year, supporting the development of both vehicle and humanoid robot autonomy software. Additionally, we continued construction for the Austin Fab, where we plan to start commissioning equipment in 2027.”
Robotaxi
“We began deployment of Cybercab into our Robotaxi fleet in Austin. We reached nearly two million cumulative unsupervised miles for our Robotaxi service as of the end of the quarter. Operating hours in Austin are now 6am to midnight, and we expect to reduce wait times via increased fleet supply and improvement of Robotaxi orchestration algorithms. Grok is available in Cybercab with access to Grok Bot and Connectors, which allows users to manage their inbox, calendars, files, chats and tasks – all hands free via voice command – making Cybercab a mode of transport, a productivity space and, with our entertainment options, a second living room.”
Interested in ordering a Tesla? Use my referral code for three free months of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) here.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reports its earnings for Q3 today. Here’s what to expect, as the company will reveal its balance sheet after the market closes on Wednesday.
Tesla already reported deliveries just after Q3 ended, and it demolished Wall Street consensus estimates of roughly 462,000 vehicles. Tesla delivered 486,532 cars in the third quarter, which was a big beat, but was down 2.1 percent from the same quarter last year. Energy storage deployments were 13.7 GWh, up year-over-year.
Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong
For the quarter, analysts have already compiled their predictions for what Tesla will report this afternoon:
- Total Revenues: $28.34B
- Non-GAAP EPS: $0.43
- Operating Margin: 2.5%
- Operating Income: $721M
- Free Cash Flow: ~-$4.51B
Here are a few things we are looking forward to hearing about on the call:
Automotive Gross Margin and Overall Profitability
This was 16.3 percent in Q2, down from 19.2 percent in Q1, and was impacted by warranty charges and some fading regulatory credits. Consensus implies overall gross margin near 18 percent, but a miss here would potentially reinforce concerns about pricing pressure on its vehicles.
Pay attention to energy storage margins as well, especially since Tesla missed GWh expectations, although it was still a strong quarter.
Robotaxi/Cybercab, Unsupervised FSD, and Optimus Progress
The Say questions from retail investors usually focus on these types of projects, and this quarter is no different. Scaling the Cybercab fleet beyond Austin amid the open NHTSA safety review, timeline for Unsupervised FSD in customer cars, Robotaxi unit economics, and Optimus cost per unit plus when it could start generating revenue, are all things to be looking for.
Any concrete timelines or regulatory path details will likely move the stock more than the near-term numbers. SpaceX merger speculation, which was detailed during SpaceX’s earnings call last night, may also surface, although the key details were shared last night.
Elon Musk just confirmed the Tesla and SpaceX merger step everyone was waiting for
Say Investor Questions
- How does the Cybercab fleet scale past Austin, and what’s the regulatory path outside Texas given NHTSA’s open safety review?
- When can we anticipate FSD unsupervised in customer cars?
- When will the CyberCab be available for customer purchase/ownership?
- What’s the unit economics per paid robotaxi mile, and how does it compare to the thirty-cent target?
- Tesla has acknowledged that HW3 vehicles cannot support unsupervised FSD. When will owners know whether they can upgrade their hardware for free, and when will Tesla provide a clear plan?
The full Earnings Call will be streamed this evening after market close around 5 p.m. this evening.
Tesla Cybercab gets a for sale date at last
Tesla Q3 2026 Earnings results: in-line revenues, slight beat on EPS
