Photo courtesy Tesloop
Tesloop made a name for itself running a shuttle service from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back with Teslas. Several months ago, the company suspended service to reshape the company around a completely new set of offerings. The hiatus is officially over and Tesloop is back with two new programs. Both new products center around the unique benefits Tesloop sees with electric vehicles and Tesla’s current Autopilot and future Full Self-Driving capabilities.
One-Way Tesla Rentals
Tesloop is launching a new city-to-city one-way rental service that takes its chauffeured service. The new offering lets customers essentially rent a Tesla for a defined period to travel from one city to the next, offering a bit more privacy and freedom than the previous shuttle offering.
Tesloop believes drivers will be interested in the program as a way to experience a Tesla as a fun alternative for getting from point A to point B. Tesloop believes that traveling in a Tesla is more than just a better way to get from one city to the next — its Autopilot and Active Safety systems also offer unparalleled safety and Tesloop is betting the farm on Tesla as a result.
The Tesla Supercharger in Oxnard, California. Photo by Kyle Field | CleanTechnica
“The most logical way to use electric vehicles for mobility is on long distance routes,” noted Tesloop founder Haydn Sonnad. The new routes aim to not only be high-class options for travel, but Sonnad believes the routes can compete on cost with other modes of transit between major cities.
“The economics of electric vehicles while interesting for city driving, are much more compelling on the highway,” Sonnad said. “This means consumers can get unmatched value when going city-to-city in a Tesla. Our service is designed to replace trains, buses, commuter flights, or even driving gas cars for those who want the safest and most advanced driving experience.”
The new service will launch with a Santa Monica–to–San Diego route that was designed to extract the most value from Tesla’s vehicles, passing the savings along to customers. Customers can book one-way rentals between the two cities for between $39 and $79, including fuel, with a total capacity of up to 5 people per vehicle.
The Tesla Vehicle Investment Program
To fund the new city-to-city rental program, Tesloop is rolling out a new avenue for investors to inject capital into the company that comes with a unique set of benefits. Tesloop’s Tesla Vehicle Investment Program (VIP) is a new financial tool that lets individual investors purchase Tesla vehicles and rent them to Tesloop for use in the rental fleet.
As the owner of the vehicle through the new VIP, owners have the potential to earn back the monthly loan amount on the vehicle, or more. Because they own the actual vehicles, each owner may be able to write off the business expenses related to the vehicle, including the standard federal per-mile rate. That is a unique angle for a select set of investors who could benefit from this type of a tax write off.
Finally, the VIP is a way for investors to leverage the Tesloop business model to invest in more Tesla vehicles than they would be able to on their own in the hopes that the company delivers on the promise of a robotaxi system. As Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said, “Buying a car today is an investment into the future. I think the most profound thing is that if you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying an appreciating asset – not a depreciating asset.” He also said that buying a car today that isn’t going to be capable of driving itself is akin to buying a horse.
Image by Chanan Bos | CleanTechnica
Whether Tesla robotaxis arrive or not certainly involves a fair amount of speculation, but if nothing else, the possibility seems to serve as additional benefit for Tesloop investors. “This program may offer the best risk/reward option in the market today for any type of investment,” continued Haydn Sonnad. “Many people think that in the future, we will reach a cross-over point, where electric vehicles become cheaper than gas vehicles. The reality is that this has already happened. You just don’t see it until you get past the first quarter of the car’s lifespan. Then it becomes clear.”
One-way rentals on the company’s new service can be booked at tesloop.com/rentals. To learn more and participate in Tesloop VIP, visit tesloop.com/vip.
If you’re in the market for a Tesla, feel free to use my Tesla Referral code for your purchase: http://ts.la/kyle623 . Doing so gives the buyer and me 1,000 miles of free Supercharging credit and allows us to cover Tesla even better in the future.
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