Hyundai and Kia thefts show how Tesla vandalism could affect rates

Teslas are the hottest new target for vehicle vandalism. But as the smoke clears from dealership lots, many Tesla owners are predicting a financial aftershock. Could the recent rash of Tesla vandalism cause already-high insurance premiums to rise? 

The short answer: Probably, but it’s not clear. Insurance premiums respond to a wide range of risk factors. All cars need insurance — but not all cars are profitable for insurance companies. When a certain make or model carries an unusually high risk, the exposure for insurers begins to outweigh the potential value that vehicle presents. Owners of these vehicles might pay higher rates, or they might find that some insurers simply won’t cover their vehicles. 

Cars that are difficult to insure commonly have high value, high power, electric motors or are hot targets for crime. As of 2025, Teslas might be the rare cars that fit into all those categories. 

Tesla critics aren’t new — but the threat looks different in 2025

Mark Hamrick, Bankrate’s Washington Bureau chief, has been a Tesla owner for years, and he says that hostility toward the cars he drives is not just a recent issue. 

“I’ve always been aware,” Hamrick says, “of facing what I would characterize as EV rage.” Green vehicles — from the humble Prius hybrid to sleek EVs like Tesla’s popular Model Y — have long provoked outrage from some people for reasons ranging from concern for the future of the American auto industry to dissatisfaction with EV tax credits. 

Now, though, the threat looks different. Due to the actions and political affiliations of the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, Tesla’s reputation has peeled off from the rest of the EV pack. Tesla’s new opponents — including some of those vandalizing Tesla vehicles — are coming increasingly from people who oppose Musk’s sweeping funding cuts as a special government employee at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“You’re sort of at risk all over the equation,” Hamrick says. “You don’t know what the motivations might be for somebody doing something nasty, but you can come up with a range of scenarios.” 

Hamrick and his fellow Tesla owners aren’t the only ones taking note of the new threats to Tesla vehicles. As of April 2025, every single Tesla vehicle on the road is included on the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) list of “difficult-to-insure vehicles.” A vehicle gets added to the “difficult to insure” list if multiple insurers have indicated that they won’t insure those models — or that they’ll only do so “under certain strict conditions or for certain types of operators.” In other words, some insurance companies in New York have already said that they’re being highly selective about which Teslas — if any — they insure. 

The “Kia Challenge”: How social trends can affect insurability

Tesla’s specific situation may be unique. But it wouldn’t be the first time that social behavior has created a new insurance risk category. 

Since 2021, Hyundai and Kia owners have battled with steep insurance renewals and even denials of coverage — all thanks to a social media trend. The “Kia Challenge,” which started on TikTok in early 2021, showed social media users how to steal certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles using a simple USB charger. 

“This is one of the first problems that I’ve observed that literally went viral,” says Matt Moore, chief insurance operations officer at the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). While Moore points out that most vehicle theft trends are “highly regionalized,” the Hyundai/Kia situation was different: It started in Milwaukee, but then spread rapidly across the country. 

As theft and vandalism claims for Hyundai and Kia vehicles spiked nationwide, the cost of insurance for those vehicles shot up. In a December 2023 research bulletin, HLDI estimated that theft claim frequency for affected Hyundai and Kia vehicles rose 43 percent from January to June 2023, with overall losses exceeding the average for other makes by a staggering 478 percent. Some insurers passed the cost of those losses on to customers in the form of premium increases; others simply chose to stop insuring certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles. Several Reddit users reported difficulty finding coverage for their Hyundai and Kia vehicles.

“It’s common practice for insurers to deny coverage for vehicles outside of their risk tolerance due to high value or high performance,” says Bankrate insurance expert Shannon Martin. “However, the rise of theft and vandalism claims on Kias and Hyundais became so costly to carriers, that they began to limit and deny a standard coverage on a basic car — which had never really happened before. This forced many drivers to switch to more expensive carriers to secure coverage or risk paying out-of-pocket to fix or replace their cars.”

Hyundai and Kia fixed their theft problem. Can Tesla solve vandalism?

The latest data from HLDI suggests that the Hyundai and Kia theft trend may finally be fizzling out. The organization’s latest data bulletin on the subject, published in December 2024, shows a 40 percent drop in theft claim frequency for Hyundai and Kia vehicles in the first half of 2024 compared to the second half of 2023. 

There’s a clear reason for the decline in thefts, and it’s not just a social media trend losing steam. In February 2023, Hyundai and Kia made theft deterrent software upgrades available to vehicle owners. By amending the technological vulnerability that sparked the trend in the first place, the automakers reduced the odds of attacks on vehicles.

As of April 2025, the average cost of full coverage car insurance for a Hyundai Sonata is $2,854 per year — just 6 percent higher than the cost of coverage for a Toyota Camry. 

While theft and vandalism claim rates remain higher for Hyundai and Kia vehicles — especially those from model years 2015 to 2019 — the report notes that “the anti-theft software upgrade seems to be related to reductions in theft claim frequency.”

Hyundai and Kia’s problem was mechanical. Tesla’s problem is political — and solving it may not be as simple as a software upgrade. But if vandalism rates do come down, it’s likely Tesla will follow in Hyundai and Kia’s footsteps and see few long-term insurability implications. Insurance rates reflect risk. If the risk to vehicles is temporary, the effect on rates will likely be too. 

Will Tesla’s vandalism spike lead to higher costs for Tesla owners?

It’s possible that the cost of Tesla insurance will go up in the next year as carriers assess the cost of vandalism claims and issue rate increases when policies renew. However, we can’t know for sure what those rate increases may look like, or whether they’ll even happen. If rates do increase, comprehensive coverage, which covers vandalism and other non-collision damage, is likely to be most affected. As of April 2025, full coverage insurance for a Tesla Model Y averages $3,789 per year — 3 percent higher than January’s pre-vandalism rate of $3,679.

Earlier this month, a user of the Tesla Motors Club online forum asked, “For those of you whose policies just renewed, did you notice a significant hike in comprehensive insurance (due to recent events)?” Of the nine users who replied, four reported major premium increases, some of which were due to adding new cars or drivers to the policy. 

“My renewal takes place in a few days,” one user shared. “No increase at all, and that’s after an accident on my car, and an accident and a windshield replacement claim on my wife’s car, all within the last 6 months.” Another complained: “Mine went up $2400 a year….Buuuut I added a 16 year old driver and a model 3 performance at the same time.” Other users reported small, “typical” increases — $6 a month, $85 for a 6-month policy — and one even said that they received a lower rate on renewal. 

As for Hamrick, the threat of rising premiums won’t push him to disembark from the Tesla train. His family has insured their vehicles — including a Tesla Model Y and Model 3 — with State Farm for years, and have had positive experiences with both State Farm and Tesla overall. “I have negative feelings about the way that this has presented itself,” he says. “It’s been very painful to see this experience where the brand has been politicized by Musks’ actions.” 

But while he’s considered the pros and cons of trading in his Teslas for a less risky ride, Hamrick says he’s content to stay where he is for now. “We’ve always had a good experience with State Farm,” he says, and with no noteworthy increases in the premiums for his Teslas, he doesn’t see an economic advantage to switching cars or carriers.

In the meantime, he hopes to see Elon Musk exit the political sphere and douse the flames driving the Tesla vandalism fad. “The sooner he stops that, the better for Tesla and Tesla owners.”