Elon Musk-led automotive and energy giant Tesla has set up an insurance broker in Shanghai, China according to reports.
Tesla has been public about its desire to leverage the high-value data its vehicles collect in order to create low-cost and attractive insurance products for its customers.
“The amount of money that people spend on car insurance is like a remarkably big percentage of the cost of a car,” said Musk during a recent earnings call.
“A lot of that insurance cost is just because the insurance companies don’t have good information about the drivers.”
The company already offers certain insurance services in California and this move suggests it is eager to broaden its scope to customers in Asia.
This new business in China has been registered in the same area of its recently-completed Gigafactory 3.
According to news outlet Morning Tick, the scope of this newly listed company is an “insurance brokerage”, and it is owned by Tesla Motors Hong Kong Ltd.
This move is interesting when viewed within the context of Musk’s ambition of creating a ride-hailing app in which drivers are covered by the company’s in-house insurance.
The move, which would rival similar services offered by well-known firms such as Uber and Lyft, would represent a step towards Musk’s much-touted, fully-automated ‘robotaxi’ fleet.
