Electric car sharing company Evee readies for major Australian...

Electric car sharing company Evee readies for major Australian expansion

Electric car rental service Evee has announced plans to “expand big,” take its EV sharing model out of five Australian capital cities and offer a broader range of all-electric models, including the latest from the ever popular Tesla.

The Sydney-based outfit, which has dropped the “h” in its original name (Eveeh), became the first Australian company to specialise in EV rentals when it launched in 2016.

A year later, as we reported here, it branched into electric vehicle sharing, where the owners of Teslas and other EVs rent out their cars.

Evee founder Slava Kozlovskii says that, initially, the car sharing business model was “restrained” by the hurdle of prohibitively high insurance premiums.

But the company claims it has now cracked that nut, in time to harness the shift away from car ownership, and towards electric mobility.

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“Evee is ready to expand big, reshaping the face of the Australian car rental market,” he said in a statement.

“We have worked hard to achieve a solution that works for everyone.

“EV owners can recoup the considerable cost of these high value vehicles when not in use. While for users it is both a transport solution for the eco-conscious, and a chance to experience the future of automotive transport now,” Kozlovskii said.

Evee is now operating out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Canberra.

Pickup can be arranged from either the owner’s home, or airport pickups can be organised for an added fee, the company says.

According to the company’s website, a Tesla Model X can be hired at a price of $410 a day, while a Model S comes at $299/day – although a quick check reveals the Model S price is lower in the ACT ($241/day) and slightly higher in Melbourne ($309/day).

As for the range of car model options renters can chose from, currently, in most of the cities, the cars available for rent appear to be mostly Teslas – a mix of X and S.

But the search page lists Nissan, BMW, and Mitsubishi among its car brands, and Evee says the EV range is set to expand again, soon, with the arrival of the first Tesla Model 3s in August/September.

“(Evee) is … creating a multi-branded marketplace (we’re not just about Tesla) where owners can share their cars for a few days and offset the cost of ownership, and renters have a wide choice of electric cars available for rent across Australia,” Kozlovskii said in an interview in 2018.

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“We also want to excite more people about the possibilities brought by electric cars and the best way to do so is to have one drive an EV.

“A few of our clients ended up buying an EV after the rental. This is our contribution towards the transition to sustainable transport.”

For those who prefer their electric ride to come with a driver, there’s a company for that too.

Sydney-based Evoke, which is backed by high profile tech investor Simon Hackett, offers “luxury transfers” from point-to-point, via around a dozen Tesla EVs, including Model X SUVs.

As we reported here, it now operates in Melbourne as well as Sydney.

https://thedriven.io/2019/07/25/ele...-evee-readies-for-major-australian-expansion/