Electric Vehicles as a Subscription

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

The start fee kills this for me. I'd subscribe for a few months just for fun otherwise.

I got excited initially when I thought this was something that would work for day-trips. I recently moved to NYC and sold my Tesla, so the idea of being able to borrow a Tesla for two or three days to get out of the city is definitely something I'd pay $400-500 dollars for if it meant not having to worry about insurance and where to park it when I'm done.

Dang, you can get an older vw tdi and a tank of biodiesel for less than the price of their startup cost - and never pay a monthly fee. It seems this service works for some people and good for them. Kind of an interesting space Autonomy fills between daily/hourly car shares and a vehicle lease? Maybe the startup fee should more be considered “club membership” or possibly a buy-in to a cooperative business structure. This current business model just kind of leaves me feeling the customer is getting fleeced; (vehicle) ownership has many upsides including the opportunity to “add value to” a vehicle along with resale.

Im additionally curious how this sub model works because of the ev infrastructure - sure you can always charge it at a public place (know people who do this) but for convenience a home charging setup seems like a reasonable investment. And if one is going to do that they may as well purchase the vehicle.

Few things I’m never going to have on subscription.

My house, my car, my bike

I like how the company is called Autonomy.

Subscription handcuffs are the opposite of autonomy.

I spend the summer driving a Dacia spring.

150 euros / month, then 0.13 € / KM.

I payed a whopping total of 650€ for 2 months. And they’re is no string attached at all.

Edit : I know it’s not the same category than a Tesla ( by far … )

But a new Dacia spring cost 12k€, with government discount on EV, it’s roughly the same price as the deposit for this service.

But then you’re driving a cube of plastic. I like it.

The only way I could see this working is as an actual subscription for someone who travels a lot. When I was traveling regularly I would have loved to have a subscription package that would have allowed me to bypass the rental counters and just pick up a car and go. What's described here is just an overpriced rental.

Seems like a great, timely idea (given the right financing). I 'spect there are a lot of people who need to use a car without the expense of owning a car (so it can sit unused for 20 hours most days).

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.

How is this different from leasing a car?

"You will own nothing and you will love it".

No thanks

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.