[HN Gopher] Electric Vehicles as a Subscription
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Electric Vehicles as a Subscription
Author : khet
Score : 8 points
Date : 2022-08-19 21:48 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.autonomy.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.autonomy.com)
| collias wrote:
| How are they getting these cars? They only offer Teslas, and
| ordering a (new) Tesla right now puts you at least 6 months out
| from delivery.
| blacksmithgu wrote:
| This is not a good deal. The price is not that much cheaper than
| a 4 year loan (~500 vs 750/mo), you still need a down payment,
| still pay for power and insurance and parking, and you don't even
| get equity!
|
| I can't see this being used by anything other than short term
| rentals and corporations who like stable expenses.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| This sounds like a rebranded auto lease.
|
| $6000 to start and $500 a month sounds like the terms of a car
| loan. If you just get a car loan for 5 years or whatever, it
| might even be less. But then the payment goes away! Yes there are
| maintenance fees, but those can be covered by insurance for
| vehicles under 100,000 miles. Don't forget modern cars are
| generally extremely reliable, and anybody can easily google the
| reliability of a specific model. Unless you're one of the very
| few Americans living in a dense urban center, you probably should
| just buy a car instead. And while it loses value considerably
| once off the lot, at least you have some sort of net worth intact
| at the end of a few year term.
| tylerfontaine wrote:
| Wow. To get the advertised lowest monthly fee for a model Y
| (Still $690/month!) you have to pay a $500 security deposit and a
| whopping $7900 "start fee"
|
| While the deposit is refundable, the start fee doesn't appear to
| be. So in 1yr, your total outlay is $16,680 for a $48,600 car.
| That's essentially a 3 year payoff + 500 for deposits, and you
| don't end up with a car after.
|
| It's not immediately clear what the advantage is here, I guess
| unless you can't qualify for a regular car loan. But the equity
| cost here is very high.
|
| They claim a loan on this car at 4.25% would cost 1900/mo, but
| it's more like 1300. And Tesla financing is as low as 2.9%, which
| is 1277/mo if you put 4500 down. Those go to 1203/mo and 1178/mo
| respectively if you put down 7900.
|
| I dunno. Nothing about this seems like a particularly good deal
| or good for it's users. They don't get the tax credits, they
| don't get the equity, they just get a more economical rental. It
| doesn't even look like there's a purchase option in the end like
| a regular lease.
|
| Maybe I'm being cynical here, and I will admit I have never quite
| understood the appeal of leasing anyway, but this concept just
| totally escapes me, and the numbers don't make a good deal of
| sense to me either.
| kieranmaine wrote:
| This seems similar to https://on.to/. We used this at my last
| company to test our smart charging app and it seemed like a good
| deal. It removed the hassle of having to sort insurance,
| breakdown cover and servicing. It also included free charging at
| BP, Shell and Instavolt chargers, which I used on a number of
| occasions.
|
| They did raise their prices recently, but from my calculation it
| still seemed like a fair offer and it's something I'd use.
| UIUC_06 wrote:
| "In the future you'll own nothing, and you'll be happy."
|
| Unless your Social Credit score gets too low. In that case,
| you'll get a free trip to the re-education camp.
| ccooffee wrote:
| Eh, it feels like they're merely trying to undercut Tesla's
| Lease offers. Sure, call it a subscription, and talk about low
| time commitments (3 months vs 36 through Tesla), but it is the
| same idea.
|
| Like leasing, this comes with the downsides of car ownership
| (maintenance, fuel, parking) without the upside of "equity".
| Based on the submission title, I was expecting something more
| akin to ZipCar (but only electric vehicles).
| r00fus wrote:
| I like that they're trying to get people into EVs. Given the lack
| of availability of EVs in general it seems this might get more
| interest than it would have say, last year.
|
| The fact that they only have Tesla vehicles seems to indicate
| that Tesla is executing where other manufacturers are not able
| to.
| sircastor wrote:
| > The fact that they only have Tesla vehicles seems to indicate
| that Tesla is executing where other manufacturers are not able
| to.
|
| I think it says more about the subscription company than it
| does about Tesla. It may imply a bias towards Tesla, a private
| negated deal, or an investor requirement.
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