Tesla will not let you leave with your new car until you can show proof of insurance. It’s one of the few items on the delivery checklist that has a hard deadline attached, so it’s worth handling before your appointment rather than in the parking lot.
According to Tesla’s own delivery day support page, “Before your delivery appointment, you must submit your insurance details, final payment and necessary documents in the Tesla app.” Auto insurance is listed alongside your driver’s license and final payment as one of the required items at the appointment itself. Credit cards are not accepted for final payment, and buyers in Texas, New Mexico, Iowa, and Michigan have to submit final payment before they can even schedule a delivery appointment, so check your state’s rules early.
Two ways to get covered
You have two options, and Tesla is explicit that neither is required over the other. You can bring a policy from your current insurer, or you can buy a policy through Tesla Insurance, where it’s offered. Tesla’s support page states plainly: “You do not need to purchase a Tesla Insurance policy if you have insurance from any other carrier to cover the Tesla vehicle.”
If you go the third-party route, call your existing insurer once you have a VIN and ask them to add the vehicle to your policy. Upload the resulting policy document in the Tesla app — Tesla says you can submit your current policy as long as it lists your insurer’s contact information.
If you want to shop Tesla Insurance instead, there’s a timing catch: you can’t get a quote whenever you want. Tesla’s page says, “You will need a delivery date from Tesla and use that delivery date and your VIN to get a quote and purchase Tesla Insurance.” In practice, that means you can’t lock in a Tesla Insurance quote until your order has progressed far enough to have both a VIN and a scheduled delivery date — so don’t expect to shop it during the earlier ordering stage. You’ll also need a valid driver’s license on hand to get the quote. Tesla Insurance isn’t available everywhere; it only shows up as an option in the app in the regions Tesla currently offers it.
What to bring on the day
Once your policy is in place, either digital or third-party, get both a digital and printed copy ready. A phone battery dying or a spotty signal at the delivery center is a bad time to discover you only had the PDF saved in an email. Bring a physical insurance card or a printed proof-of-insurance document along with your driver’s license and any trade-in paperwork, so the only thing left to do at your appointment is the walkaround inspection and the drive home.
Photo by Mikhail Nilov.
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