It would cost me nearly $5K a year to insure a Tesla Cybertruck

The only thing more ridiculous than me driving a Cybertruck is how much it would cost me to insure one.

I know, because I went around trying to get quotes.

I tried contacting a number of car-insurance companies and marketplaces — as well as Tesla, which provides its own insurance — about typical Cybertruck insurance rates but got no responses. Obviously, insurance prices are different for everyone depending on who you are, where you live, and your driving history. 

So I started trying to get quotes for myself. 

I said I would use the vehicle to commute, that I put on typical American mileage of around 13,000 miles a year, and that I planned to finance it like most Americans do. I chose a standard 2024 Cybertruck, and didn’t elect for the higher-priced Cyberbeast model when given the option. I also got rates for the 2024 hybrid Ford F-150 (I didn’t get an option for the all-electric Lightning), which has a somewhat comparable price range to the Cybertruck.

I live in a rural part of upstate New York. My husband and I own a home, have master’s degrees (I don’t know why but many of the quote forms asked this), and are employed full time. I only tried to insure one vehicle, didn’t bundle it with anything else, and opted for whatever middle-of-the road policy the company suggested. I honestly entered in a recent, tiny fender bender for my spouse (less than $2,000 in damages), and for me a minor speeding ticket last year. Despite having a lifetime of a clean driving record, this actually made us uninsurable for a number of companies. 

Geico quoted me nearly $400 a month to insure the Cybertruck. With the exact same profile, it would charge me about $100 a month for the hybrid Ford F-150 — or a quarter of the cost of the Cybertruck. (For what it’s worth, the insurance for my much less expensive new Honda is about the same, so I might have to shop around.) Bankrate says the average cost of full coverage in the US is $193 a month.

Progressive would insure the F-150 for $110 a month, but for the Cybertruck it said, “We are unable to offer you a policy at this time. The make of one or more vehicle(s) is not acceptable for new business.” A Progressive rep didn’t respond to requests for more details.

When I asked Progressive earlier this month about a report on Twitter that it wasn’t renewing a Cybertruck policy, a spokesperson said, “Progressive generally continues to insure and offer policies for Tesla Cybertrucks. There are times and various reasons in which we may non-renew a policy in accordance with state regulations. These reasons are provided directly to our customers.” The spokesperson did not respond to follow-up questions about what those times and reasons might be.  

The owner of that policy, who lives in Florida and goes by Bearded Tesla Guy on his YouTube channel where he discusses what it’s like driving Teslas, said he’s not sure why Progressive didn’t renew his policy because its response was so generic. He said the best alternative he found was 50% more than what he had been paying, and while it’s still not quite as much as what I was quoted, he said it’s “insane” nonetheless. 

State Farm, which said it doesn’t insure my area code online, quoted my editor Toby Bochan $430 a month for the Cybertruck versus $370 for the F-150. She and her spouse live in Brooklyn and have clean driving records, but no current insurance.

A local Allstate agent told me I couldn’t get a policy at all due to the fender bender. She also recently had to reject someone else trying to insure their Cybertruck for reasons other than that it’s a Cybertruck. She added that the person said it had been “impossible” to get insurance for their Cybertruck.

I also tried to get a quote for Tesla’s own insurance on its app, but it’s only available in 12 states and New York isn’t one of them. When I tried looking it up for California, it required a VIN, and the other states required me to already have a Tesla on the app.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment about typical Cybertruck rates.

A salesperson at a New York Tesla dealership told me he’d only heard one quote for a Cybertruck: $600 a month. He also told me I couldn’t test drive one because the company is trying to keep up the exclusivity for owners. (Those who’ve preordered one can’t do so either, he said).

But not everyone is paying wild prices for their Cybertruck insurance.

Chris, who runs the Dirty Tesla YouTube channel, said he’s paying about $120 a month to insure his Cybertruck through Farmers Insurance in Michigan. He says that’s actually cheaper than what he’s paying for his 2023 Model Y. 

Chris, who asked that we just use his first name, said his insurance agent wasn’t even sure why that might be. He said perhaps it’s because the Cybertruck is harder to damage than regular cars.

“Since the Cybertruck has no paint, you're not going to have those small, common repairs, like door dings or little scrapes from shopping carts,” Chris said.

Recently a Subaru did manage to damage his parked Cybertruck. The dent was small but required him to replace a large steel panel. Chris said he paid $2,700 out-of-pocket for the repair ($1,700 for just the part) but is hoping to be reimbursed by the other driver’s insurance.

Another Tesla YouTuber, Dennis Wang, said he initially paid $233 a month for Tesla insurance in California. Tesla, which adjusts its rates depending on how you drive, raised his rates to $299 a month based on his driving, so he switched to Costco, which charges him $179 a month.

People have reported a wide range of rates and availability for Cybertruck insurance, but it’s tough to know for sure without median or average rate information from Tesla or the insurance companies.

Why can Cybertrucks be so expensive and difficult to insure?

Billy Walkowiak, CEO of Collision Safety Consultants, a motor-vehicle damage appraiser that people hire to investigate when their insurance payouts for accidents don’t match what they’re quoted from body shops, says Teslas in general are already expensive to fix and, therefore, to insure.

That’s due to the added costs of Tesla certification to work on the cars, the high cost of Tesla parts, and the fact that Tesla repair procedures often opt for replacing parts rather than repairing them.

“When you're replacing parts, you're replacing Tesla parts,” Walkowiak said, noting there aren’t really less expensive after-market parts for Teslas like there are with more common cars like Fords or Toyotas.

Cybertrucks, with their 3-millimeter-thick, bullet-stopping stainless-steel panels will likely be a whole nother ballpark, but Walkowiak has yet to appraise one that’s been in an accident yet.

Its rarity and expense, he says, makes it much more akin to fixing an exotic car like a Lamborghini, Ferrari, or Rolls-Royce. That means it’s also, in many cases, going to cost as much to insure one.