3 ms·

We rent electrical scooters for $0.25/min and they can't seem to make the economics work, but $0.25/hr for a car would work? I have my doubts.

Arnt 3y ago
Different market and different market, I'd guess. It sounds as if they're aiming to let each vehicle to a single paying customer almost all of the time, and in countries where the hourly cost of maintenance is low. Not like those scooters, which spend most of their time waiting on street corners in high-cost countries. The $6 may well be the yearly price for a fleet of ≥5, expressed in a marketing-friendly way.
boringg 3y ago
VC and growth pricing not to be confused with net revenue pricing. This is to establish soundbytes and traction and only that.
SkyPuncher 3y ago
$6/day is roughly $180/month. The cheapest car lease deals right now are ~$300/month (including cash down). That doesn't seem that outrageous that these can be viable - especially if there's a future secondary market for them.
- foobarian 3y ago
  Anecdata: I lease an EV for $200/mo on a 3 year 30k miles/year lease. Definitely can see this work.
  - BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
    Where? What model? If you don't mind sharing. This has me intrigued about possibly starting a lease.
    - foobarian 3y ago
      There a bunch of EV models around leasing for that much, e.g. https://www.quirkchevy.com/new-vehicles/bolt-euv/lease-offers-and-best-prices-boston-ma/ https://www.quirkchevy.com/new-vehicles/bolt-euv/lease-offer... https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/ariya/deals-incentives-offers.html https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/ariya/deals... . Guessing they are maybe keeping the federal/state incentives for themselves?
      - pests 3y ago
        Last time I was looking around Tesla and others let you give the tax credit to them as well for an equal (or sometimes better) price reduction.
  - mavili 3y ago
    How are these companies making any money considering the depreciation and repair costs for these cars?! Leased cars would logically depreciate much faster too considering people won't look after them as if their own. A car worth 30k would most likely be about 15-20k after end of third year; but company would've made 36x200=$7,200 excluding any upkeep costs! The only explanation must be what we are sold for 30k must cost something like 5k at the factory for these companies to be viable.
    - rightbyte 3y ago
      There have to be some shenanigans going on. I also wonder where all these lease cars end up. People grind through them like cracy. Are they in a landfill on the ocean floor somewhere?
      - wwilim 3y ago
        Abroad
    - Ekaros 3y ago
      My guess is that they massively miscalculated resale value... Most reasonable explanation to me.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    Is it a Renault Tweezy or equivalent? There is no way the owner makes any profit from that for 30k+ USD car.
mschuster91 3y ago
The economics are completely different. E-scooters have all but zero resale value, most of them are completely custom-made for each company, but vehicles? These get sold after a year or two, and as long as the income from them is larger than the depreciation loss + fuel/insurance cost, it works out. Another side income is data (every movement is being tracked by GPS) and pretty insane fees regarding traffic tickets, accidents and whatnot.

Arnt 3y ago

Different market and different market, I'd guess. It sounds as if they're aiming to let each vehicle to a single paying customer almost all of the time, and in countries where the hourly cost of maintenance is low. Not like those scooters, which spend most of their time waiting on street corners in high-cost countries. The $6 may well be the yearly price for a fleet of ≥5, expressed in a marketing-friendly way.

boringg 3y ago

VC and growth pricing not to be confused with net revenue pricing. This is to establish soundbytes and traction and only that.

SkyPuncher 3y ago

$6/day is roughly $180/month. The cheapest car lease deals right now are ~$300/month (including cash down). That doesn't seem that outrageous that these can be viable - especially if there's a future secondary market for them.

foobarian 3y ago
Anecdata: I lease an EV for $200/mo on a 3 year 30k miles/year lease. Definitely can see this work.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
  Where? What model? If you don't mind sharing. This has me intrigued about possibly starting a lease.
  - foobarian 3y ago
    There a bunch of EV models around leasing for that much, e.g. https://www.quirkchevy.com/new-vehicles/bolt-euv/lease-offers-and-best-prices-boston-ma/ https://www.quirkchevy.com/new-vehicles/bolt-euv/lease-offer... https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/ariya/deals-incentives-offers.html https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/electric-cars/ariya/deals... . Guessing they are maybe keeping the federal/state incentives for themselves?
    - pests 3y ago
      Last time I was looking around Tesla and others let you give the tax credit to them as well for an equal (or sometimes better) price reduction.
- mavili 3y ago
  How are these companies making any money considering the depreciation and repair costs for these cars?! Leased cars would logically depreciate much faster too considering people won't look after them as if their own. A car worth 30k would most likely be about 15-20k after end of third year; but company would've made 36x200=$7,200 excluding any upkeep costs! The only explanation must be what we are sold for 30k must cost something like 5k at the factory for these companies to be viable.
  - rightbyte 3y ago
    There have to be some shenanigans going on. I also wonder where all these lease cars end up. People grind through them like cracy. Are they in a landfill on the ocean floor somewhere?
    - wwilim 3y ago
      Abroad
  - Ekaros 3y ago
    My guess is that they massively miscalculated resale value... Most reasonable explanation to me.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  Is it a Renault Tweezy or equivalent? There is no way the owner makes any profit from that for 30k+ USD car.

mschuster91 3y ago

The economics are completely different. E-scooters have all but zero resale value, most of them are completely custom-made for each company, but vehicles? These get sold after a year or two, and as long as the income from them is larger than the depreciation loss + fuel/insurance cost, it works out. Another side income is data (every movement is being tracked by GPS) and pretty insane fees regarding traffic tickets, accidents and whatnot.