Tesloop’s Connected Network To Support Electric Vehicles — CleanTechnica Interview
Tesloop, previously known for a city-to-city shuttle service in the US West, has more recently created Carmiq, a network for connected EVs to provide support to owners in the form of services for data, connectivity, and convenience. On the data side, users can access information related to driving efficiency, safety and battery charging alerts, vehicle valuation, and leaderboards. For connectivity, the platform covers car sharing and rentals, parking, car cleaning, tire services, and so forth. The convenience services are related to insurance, financing, the CA HOV sticker, registration status, and the federal income tax form. Rahul Sonnad, the CEO of Tesloop, answered some questions for CleanTechnica about the network.
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What was your service before you changed it, and why did you change it?
Our new product name is Carmiq, which is a connected-EV network. Tesloop is still the brand for Tesla-specific consumer rentals.
The initial Tesloop Shuttle product provided long distance ride-share from LA to Las Vegas, San Diego and Palm Springs. Due to Supercharging challenges, and California state regulation, we decided that moving to car-share vs. ride-share, where we hire drivers, would be much more scalable and a better more software-focussed business.
What is it now?
Carmiq is the first connected-EV network in the market. It is focussed on EV owners who want to leverage the connectivity of their car to create a better ownership experience and better ownership economics. Our goal is to provide a broad range of services over time. However, the first services are:
1) Vehicle Data Storage — released 10/18
2) Battery Health Monitoring — released 12/18
3) Instant valuation of vehicles (i.e. Zillow for your car) — released 1/19 for Model S and coming soon for others.
4) Peer to Peer Rental — coming soon
However, many other services such as insurance, financing, tire service, registration, and other clerical activities can all be made more efficient by using connectivity.
How many vehicles are in it, and are they all Teslas? If so, which models?
We crossed 500 vehicles early this month. They are all Teslas, but we are in talks with other EV makers to extend support beyond Teslas this year. In general, EVs are much better suited for car-sharing because of their reliability and durability.
What areas do you service?
We are focused on the US.
Who is your target audience?
We believe we can add value for all connected-EV owners. The biggest value will be for those whose cars are often idle, either because they are traveling a lot or because they don’t drive that often.
Can you explain why Tesla depreciation is lower than the typical gas-powered vehicle, and how much lower is it?
Generally, because the vehicles will last over 500k miles and have very low maintenance and fuel cost vs. ICE, especially after 100k miles.
To someone who has never known about EV depreciation, why is it important to consider?
It means that a used Tesla right now probably has the lowest cost of ownership for any car. It costs a lot to buy ($30k or more), but after a year or two it will sell for about the same price.
Do you see strong demand for Tesla rentals, and if so, why is there such a demand?
Yes, lots of demand for both monthly and daily rentals. This is across the board on Carmiq, Turo, Getaround. People want to drive these cars, but the market to rent them is extremely inefficient today with inconsistent policies and irrational pricing. Carmiq’s goal is to fix this and create market efficiency that is 5× what is out there now.
Image Credit: Tesloop
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