411–420 of 516 posts
I was once told, by a car rental chap, that the rental companies don't make money renting out cars; instead, they make money by putting some miles on the cars in their fleet, and then reselling them at a profit. He told me that the deals the rental companies have with the manufacturers are along the lines of "you will buy 5000 cars at a large discount, but you can't sell them until they have 5000 miles on the clock".…
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No it isn't. The difference between union and non union is far smaller then people have in the idealistic fantasies. Tesla employees are payed just as well, and with stock options they actually historically have been paid WAY, WAY better. The thing about Tesla is that its forward looking for a long time since they have a stable leadership with a clear long term plan. This leadership has been leading the company for m…
youre right that at least one person thinks thats crazy. Strange how we all see what we want to see in the end. Myself included.
I simply believe in leadership, no company with Elon as a CEO has really failed to grow. The closest is maybe Solarcity but he was not CEO.
Tesla threw Elon has strong connection with SpaceX. They already share material science. SpaceX uses Tesla battery technology. The connection is strong. Electric flight (not flying taxis) is a clear next step for both companies and Elon has been wanting to do it for a decade. It will take another 3-5 years before this is a serious project, but I don't think any other company is really up to it. Boeing and Airbus are not gone do it.
Until then I see continue 50% growth for a long while based on EV and Storage.
If Self-Driving works out, its massive. I am not counting on that. Even just as a advanced level 2 system its a great asset. But if it works out, the potential value is huge.
How wonder how Hertz intends to handle turnaround delays. If I turn in an ICE car at noon, they can clean and gas it and (as a guess) a new customer can drive away in it at 12:15. With an electric, filling it with energy could take quite a long time. I'm sure Hertz considered that, but I wonder how that works into their calculations.
FYI Hertz already announced that they will require a minimum charge of 10% for returned cars. So they thought about it and deemed it worthy to comment on in the announcement. If you don't require your customers to return a full vehicle, they don't need to deliver them full to the customer either. I experienced this in Croatia when I discovered they are actually not allowed to require the car be returned full (some lo…
That may just be to help avoid people planning poorly and running out of battery trying to just barely make it back to the return. There's almost certainly nothing magical about 10%, and charging the car from 5% will be almost no difference. It wouldn't surprise me if they don't charge a fee as long as they can still get it over to the cleaning bay or a parking spot with a charger.
They're likely just setting ground rules for people who have never used EVs. It's not quite as easy to solve if you run out of juice half a block away from where they want it to be returned. Or if it won't start but you got it parked in a spot out front without a charger. "It doesn't need to be full but please leave 10%" is a fair rule of thumb.
> If you don't require your customers to return a full vehicle, they don't need to deliver them full to the customer either.
Every U-Haul I've rented in the US works the way you're describing: you fill it to where they tell you. Not to a full tank.
I was once told, by a car rental chap, that the rental companies don't make money renting out cars; instead, they make money by putting some miles on the cars in their fleet, and then reselling them at a profit. He told me that the deals the rental companies have with the manufacturers are along the lines of "you will buy 5000 cars at a large discount, but you can't sell them until they have 5000 miles on the clock".…
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-hertz-full-price-ord...
I was very pessimistic about Tesla and confused by their stock price. But I now believe that they indeed are doing it and that we’re finally at the EV revolution. I’m not an early adopter type and the Teslas don’t excite me at all, but I’m really delighted that the market is evolving. I’m delighted that I was wrong.
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- People realize what a game changer it is to charge your car overnight and start every day with a full tank of "gas". It's a tiny detail, but a car that can only go 100 miles before needing to refill the gas tank is annoying. A car that starts every day with a 100 miles of range is terribly (for the oil companies) convenient.
That one is complicated a bit by housing situation - but if, if , cities and freeholders get serious about ensuring every possible parking spot (including unmarked ones) has a convenient electrical outlet nearby, that would be a game changer. In a sense, this would be much cheaper and more convenient than supercharger stations - but what it trades in infrastructure saving, it costs in getting myriad of land owners an…
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What if you're staying in a hotel, as pretty typical for rental usage for vacations or business ?
You charge at the hotel. https://www.tesla.com/destination-charging
No doubt the charger situation is rapidly improving, but it seems there's still a long way to go to match the convenience of gas. Long charge times can be mitigated by "destination charging", but if a major hotel chain like the Sheraton only has a single charger at a tourist hot-spot location like Sand Key (by Clearwater), then it seems we've still got a ways to go.
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What about China? They really want to win that race, is there a reason they wont be a serious competitor?
China's internal EV market is enormous, and by any reasonable metric Chinese manufacturers are already "winning that race". Several major cities have fully electrified their bus and taxi fleets for example, and most of those vehicles are made by BYD Auto, which was delivering more cars per year in 2012 than Tesla does now. But there's plenty of EV market to go around, both in China and elsewhere. BYD doesn't currentl…
We can compare price and range alone among US market vehicles because they all meet relatively high standards of quality, performance, and regulatory compliance. Developing nations have buyers and regulators willing to accept lower standards in exchange for accessibility, but the US market doesn’t.
BYD isn’t absent from the US market for any reason other than that they have chosen not to, because they’ve determined they wouldn’t be able to compete in that market.
I was very pessimistic about Tesla and confused by their stock price. But I now believe that they indeed are doing it and that we’re finally at the EV revolution. I’m not an early adopter type and the Teslas don’t excite me at all, but I’m really delighted that the market is evolving. I’m delighted that I was wrong.
It's not going to be a revolution despite all the EV bull market folks say, it will be an orderly transition, people are slow to change and adapt and STEM people should accept that. Electric cars are not in any way an order of magnitude upgrade in tech, which is a necessary trait for any technology that claims to be disruptive. Sure from a green perspective it is but not from a pragmatic one. I of course welcome the…
This applies to something like half the population right now (in the US). And we're on the path to alleviate issues for the other half of the population in the next few to several years.
The other major issue (which is probably the bigger one) is that car manufacturers other than Tesla can't seem to actually get out enough cars to do anything other than supply California and maybe NY. Teslas are expensive and have a litany of quality issues that push "regulars" away from them. Once Hyundai has an electric that has inventory nationwide at a reasonable price, then we have a revolutionary orderly transition on our hands.
I was once told, by a car rental chap, that the rental companies don't make money renting out cars; instead, they make money by putting some miles on the cars in their fleet, and then reselling them at a profit. He told me that the deals the rental companies have with the manufacturers are along the lines of "you will buy 5000 cars at a large discount, but you can't sell them until they have 5000 miles on the clock".…
I think rental cars have a lower value/prestige compared to single-owner used cars (the idea being people are rougher and more careless with a rental they only use for a few days).