Bulletproof car makers Alpine Armoring and ArmorMax have spent many months looking into the viability of putting ballistic armor on Tesla cars and concluded that there are numerous reasons to spend money elsewhere. If money is no object, though, you can have your protected Tesla running around with up to $350,000 worth of plating on it.
The first issue is the frameless doors found on most Tesla EVs. To guarantee protection, auxiliary frames have to be designed and installed first. It doesn’t help that the body is aluminum, necessitating more expensive tools and modding approaches.
Then there are the bulletproof windows. They also require auxiliary metal parts to be installed in most cases. Paying extra will even get you power windows that you can raise or lower at a push of a button – but doing so will necessitate new doors and stronger built-in motors.
Like many premium cars of today, Teslas come loaded with numerous cameras and sensors. The former need to be covered with a thick layer of see-through polycarbonate, while the latter require holes drilled in the bodywork to retain functionality. Once again: doable, but not exactly hassle-free and time-consuming, to boot.
Perhaps the biggest concern is the battery unit, which can catch fire if damaged by a stray bullet or grenade shrapnel. Alpine Armoring proposes a Kevlar wrap for the entire battery that should keep it safe for the most part – but guarantees aren’t easy to give.
Price-wise, ArmorMax offers Tesla car owners armoring solutions priced around U.S. $45,000. Alpine Armoring implements advanced plating techniques and will charge you between $80,000 and $350,000 per car, which is higher than the cost of the car itself in most cases.
