The cult of Tesla is a classic car tale for the modern age. Not since the “Pony Wars” in the 1960s, which generated the rebellious cool Mustang and the Camaro, has there been such hero worship of a car. But the Electric Vehicle (EV) Bubble has burst.
Ford’s electric truck, the Lightning, which is its counterpart to the gas-guzzling Ford F-150 pickup, has slashed its production by half due to lack of demand.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales in the United States rose to a record high of more than 300,000 for the first time in the third quarter of 2023, but industry leader Tesla’s market share slipped to the lowest on record and vies with chief EV rival, Rivian. Tesla’s monopoly is dwindling with the advent of even budget car companies such as Kia offering EV models.
Why can’t experts agree on market forecasts for EVs?
While Revel Is on the Rise, Ride Bound Has Failed.
Revel, the electric mobility and infrastructure company, has an all-Tesla-vehicle rideshare app with a ubiquitous fleet of neon turquoise Model 3s and Ys. The company appears to be thriving, although the app is still somewhat glitchy.
It usually takes longer to get a ride with Revel than with other rideshare apps due to a lack of availability of cars, and a higher price point. However, its service animal policy has not received as much negative feedback as Über, whose drivers tend to leave customers with service animals stranded on the sidewalk.
Revel claims its “superhubs power its rideshare fleet, personal EVs, and other fleets, easing the transition to electric for consumers and professional drivers.”
Ride Bound, a city-to-city Tesla rideshare commute service launched in 2018, has flopped. The company is out of business, and its former domain name is for sale for $9495.00. Initially priced at $39 to $79 per seat, depending on the city, commuting with Ride Bound was much sleeker than riding an Amtrak train or a Bolt bus.
Tesla Rents
A Tesla rental car company, aptly proto-named TeslaRents, in collaboration with all-electric, luxury vehicle rental company Joulez, is quietly on the rise.
Tesla Rents is in beta testing mode, and its inventory is often sold out, especially on weekends. The company does a brisk, non-stop rental business of all of Tesla’s most popular models, including the Palladium SUV and Plaid, via their iPhone app, Eon. The company, under the Eon canopy, is working to scale to rent other EV models, including Rivian.
“We wanted to revolutionize everything wrong with the car rental business,” says Rei Vardi, Founder and CEO of Tesla Rents/Eon. “From the long wait times at inconvenient airport pick-up and vehicle drop-off points, to the non-sexy vehicle inventory, to getting bait and switched when the car you selected isn’t available for pick up on arrival. With our white glove service, an employee brings the Tesla of your choice to your door and picks it up from you when you’re done. All you have to do is drive it, not trek to get it.”
When asked if what happened to Bound is a cautionary tale, Vardi suggests that the company probably didn’t market and promote its services effectively.
On the other hand, Tesla overmarketed its self-driving feature, which still isn’t fully functioning. CEO Elon Musk upsold Tesla customers on the idea that the cars will eventually be fully self-driving (FSD). Customers paid thousands of dollars extra for the self-driving feature, assuming it would be a firmware update to their already purchased vehicles.
Tesla vehicles come with three “self-driving” options: a standard driver-assistance system called Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Fully Self Driving (FSD).
Customers have two options: subscribe to FSD (beta) for $200/per month or purchase EAP or FSD outright for $6,000 or $12,000 respectively. Customers cannot downgrade for a refund once the option is purchased.
Enhanced Autopilot, which, among other features, includes an active guidance system that navigates the vehicle from a highway on-ramp to an off-ramp, including lane changes, and can steer, accelerate, and brake by itself.
Despite the semantics, Tesla vehicles are not self-driving, and, according to regulators, aren’t meant to be. Instead, FSD includes several additional automated driving features that still require the driver to be ready to take control at all times. It includes everything in Enhanced Autopilot and is supposed to handle steering on busy city streets and recognize and react to stop signs and traffic lights.
Years later, with the FSD upsell unfulfilled, will a class-action suit exist against the company for failing to deliver on this promise? Will customers who want to opt out of waiting for the self-driving feature receive refunds? Or, are Tesla’s fans so distracted by the inimitable, nascent Tesla Cybertruck’s preternaturally trenchant design to not notice their self-driving cars aren’t?
Will Cybertrucks Help Tesla Keep on Truckin’?
Joulez, run by serial entrepreneur CEO and Founder Micah Bergdale, has a standing order for 10 Tesla Cybertrucks and is waiting for the company to fulfill it. He insists that Tesla provides incremental, monthly software updates for its self-driving feature. “It’s not that the overall functionality doesn’t exist, it’s just that it’s in Beta.” He said. “I’m not going to speak on behalf of Tesla, but many consumers request this feature and like it. It could be that those with older model vehicles also need a hardware update.”
“There was recently a story about a ‘Tesla recall,’ but it was just a software update,” Bergdale said. “Most customers received the update via WiFi and didn’t even know about the ‘recall.’ They didn’t have to take their cars anywhere to get serviced. The software is constantly improving what the cars see on the road in relation to the vehicle,” said Bergman.
But Tesla’s autopilot feature sparked myriad lawsuits before the recall. Musk asked the Supreme Court to undo Tesla’s settlement agreement, and the Autopilot recall threatens the company’s defense in lawsuits over crashes.
While the United Nation’s Global Electric Mobility Programme supports more than 50 low-and-middle-income countries with the shift from fossil fuel to electric vehicles, EVs still have kinks to be worked out. How will history judge Tesla? As a failed footnote in automotive history, like the Ford Edsel, as a visionary, industry standard in a future powered primarily by a plethora of electric vehicles, or just another EV on the road before cars, like pigs, can fly?
