A fleet company in New York City, American Lease, has bought over unsold 2,800 units of the now-defunct Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) rival Fisker's Ocean SUVs to operate as cabs in the city.
A $16,000 Deal, NYC's Green Rides Initiative
American Lease, which is the largest fleet operator in the city, bought the SUVs for $16,000 a unit, a far cry from the original $70,000 retail price for the Fisker Ocean, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The company, which rents the Ocean SUVs for $330 a month, first came across the idea when NYC announced the Green Rides Initiative, mandating that all ride-hailing services need to operate wheel-chair accessible cars or EVs by 2030, but President Donald Trump's rollback of EV incentives left affordable all-electric cars in short supply.
"We were sitting at lunch and I was reading an article about how Henrik Fisker, who founded Fisker, had listed his home for more than the market cap of the company at that point," Josh Bleiberg, American Lease's Executive VP, said in the report, adding that it was then that the company decided to buy Fisker EVs.
Operational Issues, Software Updates
The report also highlights operational challenges faced by the fleet operator, which set up dedicated service centers and lots for the Fisker Fleet, including going back and forth between Fisker owners, bankruptcy courts, as well as contracting another software company to fix the Ocean's several software glitches.
The company also managed to roll out OTA updates for the vehicles after a lot of effort, the report says, after contracting EV startup indiGO Technologies, which also became responsible for rolling out software updates for the entire Fisker Ocean line in the U.S. and Europe.
American Lease now operates over 1,000 Fisker Oceans as a part of its fleet in NYC, with Bleiberg saying that full utilization of the fleet would occur with "up to 2,200, 2,500 cars on the road."
Uber Offers EV Incentives, Tesla Begins Robotaxi NYC Testing
The news comes amid companies pushing for EVs as fleet vehicles, with Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE:UBER) offering over $21,500 worth of incentives to drivers in Colorado to switch to an EV when driving on the Uber platform.
Meanwhile, Tesla has also begun testing its Robotaxi in NYC after posting a job listing on its official website looking for operators to conduct tests in the city as it looks to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service.
Elon Musk's Ambitious Robotaxi Target And Waymo’s New Hardware
Amid ride-hailing push, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also highlighted his ambitious target of serving over half the population of the U.S. with Tesla Robotaxis by the end of 2025 during the company's second-quarter earnings call.
Elsewhere, Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) Waymo began testing its new Robotaxi with the sixth-generation autonomous driving hardware, which includes a combination of cameras, radar and LiDAR sensors.
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