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Tesla is getting into the rental car market.
Drivers can now rent a Tesla in two Southern California locations—San Diego and Costa Mesa—for three to seven days, starting at $60 daily, according to Electrek. Tesla will be renting, not leasing, its EVs, and it plans to continue rolling out additional U.S. locations starting this month.
Fast Company has reached out to Tesla for comment.
The news comes as the electric vehicle maker looks for new ways to head off further declines in U.S. sales following the expiration of federal tax credits, and also amid continued backlash against the company for CEO Elon Musk’s role in the U.S. government—not to mention growing competition in the EV market.
Those federal EV tax credits of up to $7,500 expired on October 1, after President Donald Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law.
Each Tesla rental will include the option for supervised Full Self-Driving and Supercharging, at no extra cost. And as an incentive to buy, customers will receive a $250 credit if they purchase a model within a week, Electrek reported.
Shares of Tesla Inc were trading up over 4% in midday trading on Monday.
Shares of rental car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ) were down nearly 3% at the time of this writing, in the aftermath of its recent quarterly earnings report. The car rental giant had purchased a fleet of Teslas to increase its EV offerings, but has been selling them as demand decreased, along with resale value.
The news comes just days after shareholders approved a controversial pay package for CEO Elon Musk that’s worth up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation, and also as the head of Tesla’s ailing Cybertruck business announced he was leaving the company following Tesla’s recall of some 63,000 Cybertrucks due to their bright front lights, per The Associated Press.
A look at the numbers shows Tesla’s third-quarter earnings missed analyst expectations, even while it reported $28.1 billion in revenue, up 12% from the previous year. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at 50 cents, versus an expected 54 cents. The company has reported year-over-year revenue declines in the two previous quarters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Mattson is a Contributing Writer at Fast Company, where she covers news trends and writes daily about business, technology, finance and the workplace.. She is a former network news producer for CNN, CNN International and a number of public radio programs.
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