The rise of the Tesla

22 February 2022

If you’ve been busy with new vehicle insurance quotes in the past year then it could be because 2021 was the biggest sales year on record for the New Zealand new vehicle industry. As a country we added 165,287 new cars to the roads in the last 12 months and an increasing number of these were Tesla’s.

A question our Key Account Managers often get is “Do Star insure Tesla’s”? The answer is yes, we sure do, and we’re adding more than a couple to our books every week.

For the first time, the Tesla Model 3 made it into the NZ top 10 sales list for 2021, coming in at #9. However in a sign of their increasing popularity it hit the #1 spot in December. For those who like actual numbers, Tesla sold 3271 cars in NZ last year, but is still a long way from our top selling vehicle, the Ford Ranger with 12,580 sales (we’re a farming country!).

The world leader in EV sales is Norway (similar population to NZ) with plug-in cars making up two-thirds of all their new car sales. Our current governments hot on climate change and with them introducing incentives like the Clean Car Discount it’s likely we’ll see our percentage of EV sales continue to increase.

Star are more than happy to insure Tesla’s and we are taking some steps to ensure we’re well positioned to deal with claims on these vehicles. Our internal assessing team have very good relationships with Tesla’s repairers around NZ (only certain workshops are authorised by Tesla to repair their vehicles); we’ve dealt with Tesla directly to source parts for the vehicles; our glass extension will extend to cover the roof on the model 3 (another frequent question we get).

As more and more car manufactacturers move towards electric vehicles and they gain popularity with the NZ public Star will continue tailoring our insurance products so they provide the best cover and necessary policy extensions for these vehicles. So keep sending the quote requests through!