On May 20th Beijing time, according to Reuters reports, due to Tesla's repeated price cuts, the dissatisfaction among many European car rental companies towards Tesla is intensifying. The residual value of Tesla cars has rapidly declined due to the price cuts, which leads to rental companies not being able to obtain the expected revenue when selling the vehicles after the end of the taxi usage period.
Richard Knubben, the director-general of Leaseurope, a European leasing association representing a national group of 31 countries, said, Nothing is worse than the continuous depreciation of the assets of fleet buyers. He mentioned that the sudden price drop weakens the residual value of leased vehicles, causing losses to rental companies.
The dissatisfaction of rental companies also comes from Tesla's slow and expensive after-sales service. Some companies said that the repair speed of Tesla is too slow, and due to the expensive parts prices, the repair cost is also much higher than that of other brands of cars. Lorna McAtear, the fleet manager of the British energy company National Grid, said that the repair cost of Tesla is three times the industry average.
According to Reuters' interviews with nine Tesla executives, in order to pacify these dissatisfied customers, Tesla has taken some measures, including providing discounts to rental companies and attempting to improve after-sales service. In addition, starting from the middle of 2023, Tesla has provided an unofficial end-of-quarter discount for rental companies to purchase Model 3 and Model Y, with a maximum discount of up to 2,000 euros (about 15,737 RMB).
In response, Knubben said, The residual value of Tesla has dropped too fast, and I'm not sure if the discount they provide is enough.
Tesla's unusual move to provide favorable policies for car rental companies seems to be under the threat of competition from other brands. Bart Beckers, the deputy chief executive of the French car rental company Arval, said that the new challenger - Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers - seems to be avoiding Tesla's mistakes by focusing on maintaining a strong resale value of the cars.
Fleet managers and rental company executives said that as Tesla's main competitor in China, BYD, has begun to enter the European market and provide more cost-effective electric vehicle models, rental companies are reducing their reliance on Tesla. Traditional automakers such as Volkswagen and BMW are also producing increasingly competitive electric vehicles.
McAtear said that the British National Grid company has 2,000 cars, including more than 500 Teslas, but unless the problem is solved, she plans to remove Tesla from its fleet.