[CJamie]

Would you consider joining a car subscription service like Autonomy or through a manufacturer like Porsche's "Porsche Drive" for example? I'm seeing more and more ads from them but I don't know how popular they actually are.

I get the appeal if you don't drive a lot but want a vehicle when needed, rather than buying a car and letting it sit. But if you're someone who likes to drive a lot, the mileage limits would be annoying.

If VW offered one for EVs would you be interested?

Porsche Subscription - Porsche USA

www.porsche.com

Autonomy | Electric Car Subscription | Tesla Model 3 & Y

The radically new way to get your next car. Month-to-month car subscriptions at affordable all-in prices.

www.autonomy.com

 

[Atlant]

It would depend a lot on the pricing, wouldn’t it?

 

[carvellwakeman]

In the US we really try way to hard to avoid building public transit don't we?

If you're going to pay for transportation without your money going towards equity of the vehicle, that sounds like a bus pass. Or lease the car without buying it back. Or use something like zip-car. Renting housing is so successful at sucking money out of people, why not do it with their car too!

Hard pass, because I'm lucky enough to afford it, or use our just okay transit.

 

[BlueDH]

And location and public transportation infrastructure. If I lived in a high rise in Manhattan, NYC probably not. LA maybe, but I've never lived in a very, downtown urban location.
Also who and how many would I be competing with for reservations? I'm probably not gonna' be that type of driver.
I've always considered an EV to be a commuter car. Long distances I'd fly, even today. Family vacation, like the great American Pilgrimage to Disney World, or Ocean City, MD, I'd use my wife's ICE Pacifica van.
Too many variables to pin down longish travel to a single, specific method.
I remember Spin planning a trip from Lon'gilan to FL in his FE. I believe he wisely bailed, takes a lot faith, adventurism and no anxiety, for a such a trip. In the winter, too...

Ah, to return to the summer of '21, with 3 yrs of free, uninterrupted EA charging, fewer EVs on the road, new EA stations, and summer time 125 kWhr charging rates 😉.
Those were the days, my friend,
We thought they'd never end...

 

[MikeQBF]

No.

 

[SunWizard]

No, unless it was really low cost.

 

[Einar98281]

You mean I get mobility as a service? With uptime guarantees? Sign. Me. Up.

 

[TidingSStables]

Imagine the smells 🤢🤮

 

[Manybees]

Only if it did not involve paying any money for it.

 

[MikeQBF]

No, unless it was really low cost.

Therein lies the rub. Didn't Tesla or somebody affiliated offer a subscription service in the SF Bay region a couple of years ago? IIRC the pricing was outrageous... and possibly realistic. It seemed like subscribers were in essence buying the car in just 24 months. Actuaries probably computed that's about how long one would survive in that kind of semi-rental service.

Let's file this one under "EV Oddities & Curiosities": Canoo's big splash two years ago was not so much their unique design, it was that vehicles would only be available by subscription. Change of management 86'ed that idea in late 2021, and rightfully so.

 

[Dougie01]

Seems to me there is already the equivalent of a subscription service already available. As mentioned above, the most sensible thing to do is live where you can use public transportation. Or, if you need a car but only use it a few times a month, then rent it. If you drive a lot but don't want to own the car, then lease it. What is the scenario where a subscription service would offer something better than those two options?

An interesting side discussion is the question of why people buy pickup trucks. Maybe you go to the lumber yard three times per summer to buy stuff that won't fit in a car. Maybe you drive to Montana for a vacation twice a year and have to take a lot of junk. So that is five times a year you need a pickup truck--and the entire rest of the time you could be driving around in a little sedan or sports car.

It's like the "I need 1000 miles of range in case I ever decide to drive to Alaska" mentality on EVs.