Tesla tops list of least stolen vehicles – GPS tracking will do that

All of Tesla’s vehicles have topped the list of least stolen vehicles in the US, thanks to having GPS tracking as a standard feature.

We have covered several satisfying stories about Tesla owners managing to get their vehicles back after being stolen.

They often even assist police by tracking their vehicles through the Tesla app.

Both the feature itself and the fact that it has been publicized have resulted in very few Tesla vehicles being stolen. And if they do get stolen, they get found pretty quickly.

Now we get some actual data backing this.

Highway Loss Data Institute, which is supported by the insurance industry, has published its ‘whole vehicle theft losses’ report covering over 40 million vehicles with 18,000 theft claims:

The total exposure accumulated for the three model years was nearly 13 million insured vehicle years for passenger cars and nearly 33 million insured vehicle years for pickups, SUVs, and vans. Whole vehicle theft claims numbered over 7,000 for passenger cars and more than 11,000 for pickups, SUVs, and vans.

The data shows that Tesla vehicles are the least stolen in the US.

Model 3 and Model Y are the top two least stolen and several other Tesla models and trims are also at the top of the list:

IIHS wrote about the Tesla vehicles theft rate in the US:

The Tesla Model 3 electric four-door 4WD, a midsize luxury car, and the Tesla Model Y electric four-door 4WD, a midsize luxury SUV, had the low- est relative whole vehicle theft claim frequencies at just 3 percent of the all- passenger-vehicle average.

While thefts of Tesla vehicles are rare in the US, in Europe, they have some more sophisticated thieves that managed a string of Tesla vehicle thefts through relay attacks.

In response to those attacks, Tesla started rolling out extra layers of security with an “improved cryptography” key fob and optional “PIN to Drive” feature. Once applied, these measures can greatly decrease the chances of your Tesla vehicle being stolen.

In this case, on top of the PIN to Drive feature, drivers can carry their Tesla key card in an RFID card holder to protect against the attack, but it wouldn’t apply if you use your phone as a key, which is what most Tesla owners do.