Perhaps.

Since their introduction over 6 years ago, well over 200,000 Model S' have been sold, and Geico has insured quite a few of them.

> actuaries don't know how to price it in yet

This is pretty far from my field of expertise, so I can't make any kind of directed comment. I'll just say that it strikes me as unlikely that Geico either doesn't have enough data yet and/or doesn't know what it's doing.

I don't know much about

What percentage of that 200,000 is in California? I don't think the sample size is near large enough, nor properly distributed to build a comprehensive risk model around.

I'm not a subject matter expert either but I would love to hear from someone in the industry.

It doesn't matter how many were sold but how easy/cheap is to fix them when insurance is needed.

For Tesla parts are rare and expensive, authorized service partners are rare and expensive, so fixing the car costs a lot.

Car insurance doesn't cover repairs, it's actually insurance, not an all inclusive payment plan like health "insurance".

There are no parts available from anyone but Tesla. So when the $2,500 plastic lens assembly for your brakes is back ordered 3 months, the insurance company is stuck with your rental coverage.

Why is it that Tesla is the only parts provider when other car companies have aftermarket parts?

My immediate guess is because other car companies outsource the production of most of the parts, and the companies who make those parts are happy to make more to sell on the aftermarket.

Tesla manufactures parts itself, and is still getting their main production lines working right.

Tesla has plenty of parts built by other car makers / suppliers.

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/05/tesla-blames-bosch-recall-...

Tesla does. But builds most of their parts in house. And even outsourced parts may wind up inside of the part you need to replace, and therefore you're still bottlenecked on Tesla.

Ever try to find a service manual for a Tesla?

They want to control everything, but are too hard up to stock parts.

Perhaps you and I use different terminology? Parent comment refers to "full coverage", which I believe includes the costs of repairs no matter whose fault it is.

Full coverage auto insurance still only covers repairs from accidents. It doesn't cover the cost of, say, brake pads needing to be replaced or a window motor going bad.

For covering normal wear and tear maintenance, that would be an auto warranty – or extended warranty, service contract, protection plan, etc.

At least, those are the standard terms in the United States.

Anecdote: last year I was repairing a bumper on my older Ford sedan, this was in Minneapolis mid winter (so tis the season for mild-severe body damage) and one of the body shops I got a quote from was also the only authorized Tesla dealership in several hundred miles. They had an entire lot just for body damaged Tesla's waiting on parts. The owner commented to me that they were getting Tesla's hauled from southern Iowa for repair. Nothing like a 500 mile flatbed ride to really spice up the total cost of repair.

It seems like there's some confusion here with regard to auto insurance, warranties, and regular maintenance.

As far as I'm aware warranties only cover faulty / defective parts (and labour to replace), insurance is intended as accident cover, everything else is regular maintenance.

It does however factor in the likelihood of a crash, and the cost of repairing the vehicle after a crash. So if the 3 is more expensive to repair than other similar vehicles, the insurance would cost more.