How to rent Tesla as an independent company-rental business

Jason Kennedy founded Gateway Auto Holdings from California and devoted himself to renting EVs in a fleet consisting primarily of Tesla.

Photo: Gateway Auto Holdings

The car rental industry is finally catching up with electric vehicles and is rapidly becoming a force in the electrified market. However, one West Coast operator has been in the EV rental business for three years and has become open to both the challenges and opportunities of this expanding opportunity. This opportunity will soon be mainstream from the niche.

Auto rental news I caught up with Jason Kennedy, president of Gateway Auto Holdings. The company rents electric vehicles exclusively in Southern California and ARN I learned about his first-hand experience.

Kennedy specifically rents Tesla — Model X, Model S, Model 3. He wants his rental business to be seen as a traditional car rental company. We just rent a car and there is no big mobility movement we are creating here. It’s just that the vehicle’s propulsion is electricity, “he says.

With a shortage of vehicle supply and rising costs, it’s a good time for rental operators, especially independent companies, to enter Tesla. The brand’s one-price system and lack of volume discounts are close to what rental operators are paying for. Today’s traditional vehicle. The price of one is the same for major car rental companies and smaller businesses.

In terms of cost of ownership and profitability, Kennedy believes the Model 3, which has a higher initial cost, can compete with more mainstream vehicles. This results in higher daily charges, operator maintenance savings, and his ability to direct the Model 3’s incredible resale value.

And, primarily by running Tesla, he can carry a large inventory of parts at hand for use as needed. He budgets for tire sets because EVs are heavier and pass faster.

Kennedy believes that EVs can stay in the fleet longer than traditional rental life cycles due to less maintenance needs. He keeps Tesla pristine and most lessees don’t know the difference between model years. In addition, wireless updates can constantly update the technology and manage some repairs.

Gateway rental process

Kennedy found that renting an EV could abandon a traditional physical store office with counters, agents, and key handoffs.Gateway is mainly Contactless rental experience This allows customers to book their car online, complete paperwork electronically, select a shipping address, and then receive remote access to the vehicle.

“Electric mobility and the electric rental business, especially Tesla, gives us a lot of freedom to do that,” he says.

Kennedy is clearly a Tesla fan and states that its value is primarily in the vehicle’s intuitive user experience. “Basically, you can get closer to them, get in the car, and drive away,” he says.

Tesla without a power button has a slight learning curve for the average renter. That is, the operators are intuitive and logical, and they want it.

Some people want to get in and drive away, while others want to use the infotainment system to get into the weeds and experience the vehicle in person. In any case, “They take you from point A to point B quietly, quickly, and in a nice and clean way.”

“We really want our customers to have a complete understanding of the vehicle, and we’re probably giving it a more rigorous explanation than necessary,” he adds. “Now everyone is on YouTube, so everyone knows how to get started on Google (Tesla), so I know that customers don’t have to explain everything to me. There’s this part of it, but I know they’re grateful for it because they told us. “

However, the most important thing in educating a car rental company is the safety function of the vehicle. For Tesla, users need to understand how autopilot technology works and everything that comes with proper and safe operation of such features. In particular, the driver is ultimately responsible for the vehicle. Kennedy states that he will not enable the more autonomous full self-drive mode.

The lessor must have their own insurance to rent from the gateway. “The LDW we offer is exorbitantly expensive or not profitable enough for a small independent fleet, so we increase profitability and manage the risks ourselves. Needs a larger scale, “he says.

EV charging solution

In the early days of petrol cars, and before gas stations were everywhere, people were strategically planning their trips around when and where they simply needed to be refueled.

According to Kennedy, electric vehicles are now in widespread use in this early stage and are rapidly becoming widespread. September 2021 Reuters Report It is estimated that there are 43,000 public EV charging stations and about 120,000 charging ports in the United States. It also does not consider home charging stations. Kennedy now wants the incentives to go where they are right.

When it comes to charging, one of Kennedy’s pains is receiving and renting vehicles without a full charge. For gasoline-powered vehicles, major rental companies offer full tanks of new vehicles, but this depends on the independent operator.

“Why is electricity different? I like to provide customers with full batteries as often as possible, but that’s not always possible,” he said, with more public chargers. He added that the problem would be alleviated as he went online.

Kennedy includes a daily fee in the rental agreement, cross-references it with the actual cost of the return, adjusts the two, and refunds the difference to the customer if less than the fee is used.

Kennedy adds that for now it’s very easy to charge them while cleaning the vehicles between their customers. If the vehicle is low and does not have enough time to return and charge, Kennedy pushes the customer to the next available model. “We don’t want to do that, but we want happy customers instead of having to drive 40 miles and already charge. It’s ridiculous,” he says.

Of course, he prefers upgrades because you don’t want to lose money with too much supply. This is another example of a practice inherited from a major operator and works well.

https://ift.tt/bMyrVnI How to rent Tesla as an independent company-rental business

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