Model Ses for hire... when will we see more?

[neroden]

So, there are now several limo / hire car services which are offering Teslas -- mostly only in LA and Chicago. There's one in Chicago which *only* uses Teslas (E-motion).

Most of them are really freaking expensive, though. The same is true of the very few rental car places which rent Teslas. There are a couple of taxi companies (London, LA, Netherlands, maybe Norway) using Teslas, again charging a substantial premium and obviously making a mint.

I'm spoilt now. When I arrive in a city without my car, if I'm in a car at all, I want to be in a Tesla Model S. But I'm not wiling to pay absurd prices. And they simply aren't available at all in most cities.

How long do people think it will take before they're common, and the "Tesla premium" for hiring a Tesla starts dropping to something reasonable? (In some cases now it's 10 times the price of hiring an ICE car.)

The economics seems solid -- any car-for-hire operation which uses Model S will have a fairly quick payback on the fuel savings, due to the high mileage and large amount of sitting around "idling". I'd think companies would be jumping on it. But it's been slow.

Anyway, if people could list all the places they know of to rent Teslas, hire Teslas, etc., this could become a useful thread.

 

[Jhall118]

So, there are now several limo / hire car services which are offering Teslas -- mostly only in LA and Chicago. There's one in Chicago which *only* uses Teslas (E-motion).

Most of them are really freaking expensive, though. The same is true of the very few rental car places which rent Teslas. There are a couple of taxi companies (London, LA, Netherlands, maybe Norway) using Teslas, again charging a substantial premium and obviously making a mint.

I'm spoilt now. When I arrive in a city without my car, if I'm in a car at all, I want to be in a Tesla Model S. But I'm not wiling to pay absurd prices. And they simply aren't available at all in most cities.

How long do people think it will take before they're common, and the "Tesla premium" for hiring a Tesla starts dropping to something reasonable? (In some cases now it's 10 times the price of hiring an ICE car.)

The economics seems solid -- any car-for-hire operation which uses Model S will have a fairly quick payback on the fuel savings, due to the high mileage and large amount of sitting around "idling". I'd think companies would be jumping on it. But it's been slow.

Anyway, if people could list all the places they know of to rent Teslas, hire Teslas, etc., this could become a useful thread.

I just put an ad out on Relayrides to rent my Performance model S out in Seattle. Surprisingly, I am the only one on the site in my city. My price is ~$275 a day. That is much cheaper than Hertz ($500 a day for non-performance) and compared to other cars in its class, I think it's reasonable for what it is. I get 75% of it. I drive for Uber in my spare time, but it's definitely not worth the depreciation (I plan on keeping the car for a long time though). I think the issue is that the Model S just isn't that great of a back seat experience for the money. Yeah, you save on gas, but you lose on other things. The logistics of charging are also a challenge. To many of my clients, they see little difference sitting in the back of a Model S, and a Chrysler 300, or a Lexus, despite it being 2-3 times the price. That's kind of a big deal for a livery company.

Chademo adapter sure would help.

 

[salamagd]

Yep - I just spent Christmas in NYC and was desperate to pay $500 or more a day for a few days to rent a Model S to go visiting friends in NJ - unfortunately I couldn't find anything in either state!

 

[RiverBrick]

So, there are now several limo / hire car services which are offering Teslas -- mostly only in LA and Chicago. There's one in Chicago which *only* uses Teslas (E-motion).

Most of them are really freaking expensive, though. The same is true of the very few rental car places which rent Teslas. There are a couple of taxi companies (London, LA, Netherlands, maybe Norway) using Teslas, again charging a substantial premium and obviously making a mint.

If you visit the Quebec City area, the rate for the Tesla taxi is the same as it is for any other licensed cab. http://instagram.com/teslataxi


In the province, there's also a Montreal car rental company that only deals in plug-ins. I think their Tesla price is less than 300 USD/day + tax. Less for longer rentals. http://eekorentals.com/en/