New rental platform lets Aussies try out some of the world’s most expensive electric cars for fun: ‘Take that baby for a whole weekend’
- New platform dedicated to the rental of electric cars
- Expensive models can be used for a long time
- Evee is raising money to expand its service worldwide
An Australian car-sharing platform allows users to rent top-of-the-range luxury electric vehicles and take them on a longer ride.
Evee matches people who want to use an electric car in the short term with car owners who charge them a fee, on which the company takes a 35 percent discount.
Using the service, a premium Tesla Model S, which sells for more than $117,000, can be rented for as little as $200 per day.
Owners, referred to as ‘hosts’, can also deliver the car for an additional fee and provide advice on how to drive it.
Evee founder and CEO Slava Kozlovskii told the The Australian that his goal was to let people experience electric vehicles.
“A lot of times they don’t know if it’s right for them, or they don’t know which car is perfect for them,” he said.
Tesla Model X (pictured) cars are one of the brands of electric vehicles available on the car sharing platform
‘They like to ask a lot of questions and our landlords are happy to answer them.
“When you go to Tesla, you only get a 20 minute test drive and that never gives you a full understanding of how great these vehicles are.
“There’s nothing like going out with that baby for a whole weekend and really experiencing the joy of owning an electric car.”
According to Mr. Kozlovskii, EV owners can earn about $2,000 a month from the platform.
Mr Kozlovskii, who lived in the ACT, launched Evee in 2016 by originally allowing customers to rent a Tesla to drive from Canberra to Sydney.
Evee offers customers the chance to rent a car from the owner and get the feel of an electric vehicle
From this humble beginning, the start-up has driven more than three million kilometers of electric vehicle (EV) by 8,000 customers and is looking to expand internationally.
It is raising money on crowd-sourcing platform Birchal and has sparked interest from cashed-in billionaire investors involved in other Australian tech success stories, such as graphic design platform Canva and team collaboration software maker Atlassian.
At the time of writing, Evee had seen 323 investors commit nearly $900,000 with 14 hours left to reach the 1.6 million goal.
For now, Evee only operates from major state capitals.
According to Mr. Kozlovskii, EV ownership in Australia will double between 2021 and 2022.
Evee founder and CEO Slava Kozlovskii launched his car-sharing business in 2015, offering people the chance to drive an electric vehicle from Canberra and Sydney
“The car rental market in Australia is worth $2 billion annually, with electric vehicles being the fastest growing niche,” he said.
“The trust we have built allows us to benefit from every step of a customer’s EV journey.”
Australian governments have set ambitious targets to boost the number of electric vehicles on the road.
The ACT has adopted a sales target of 80 per cent of electric vehicle sales by 2030, with Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and NSW aiming to reach 50 per cent market share by then.