As the demand for electric vehicles grows, consumers now have even more options to make the switch from gas to electric. Enter EV startup Autonomy, a subscription-based service that allows customers to have access to a fleet of electric cars without having to buy or lease the vehicle. Autonomy CEO Scott Painter joined Cheddar News’ Closing Bell to discuss the company's expansion to 23,000 available vehicles from 17 car manufacturers in a $1.2 billion deal. “We're going to be talking with all of these manufacturers about which vehicles are coming to market, but there are 38 different make/model trims that have been announced over the next 12 to 18 months,” Painter said. “We want to be able to offer all of these new choices. We do believe it's time to go electric.” Users can access the cars through Autonomy’s partnership with AutoNation. 


Closing Bell

Electric Vehicle Subscription Company Autonomy Expands to 23,000 Vehicles

well. Have you been curious about trying out an electric vehicle in the long term but not ready to make that commitment for the long term just yet. That's where our next guest comes in, autonomy offering a subscription based flexible use service that lets you get an E. V. Without leasing or buying the vehicle by essentially renting the vehicle itself. So drivers keep their vehicles for at least three months at which point they can keep driving and return it. And now users will have more options because autonomy is expanding its fleet with 17 automakers in a deal worth about 1.2 billion. So joining me now is Scott painter founder and ceo of autonomy as Scott. Thanks so much for coming on the show. A big deal. Congratulations to you and your company. How will this impact customers. Kristen thanks for having me. I think this is really about choice. Um clearly, you know there are a lot of big forces at work whether it's gas prices, inflation, supply chain issues, you know mobility and and really flexible access to mobility. We think is about making it more affordable. We also think it's about making it easier when you get into a subscription, everything happens entirely on your phone. More importantly, it's not debt. So you you have available credit to be able to borrow for other things in your life, but because it's not debt, it doesn't affect your credit score, it doesn't show up as debt. You can pay for it on your credit card And we offer month to month. Our current order 23,000 cars is something we expect to have the existing automakers fill over the next 12-18 months and everybody is going to be different over the next month or so. We're gonna be talking with all of these manufacturers about which vehicles are coming to Market. But there are 38 different make model trims that have been announced over the next 12-18 months. We want to be able to offer all of these new choices. We do believe it's time to go electric. There's so many compelling reasons from a cost point of view, though subscriptions are about making so scott congratulations again, I want to ask you some of the basics here because I'm sure our viewers are very interested, especially as you know, electric electric vehicles for the general population are still very new and not everyone might have decided just yet that an E. V at this moment is right for them. And so where do people pick up these electric vehicles? How easy is the access to them? Well, in addition to the 23,000 car order, which is certainly big news. We've also announced a partnership with autonation, the country's largest auto retailer with over 300 retail points of presence around the country. They've also got their autonation usa stores. You're gonna be able to pick up your vehicle at any autonation store. So within about 10 miles of every American and you'll be able to then get that car serviced maintained. So if you need tires, brakes, windshield wipers, any of that traditional in subscription service need, that's going to be managed by autonation as our partner. And then you've also got roadside assistance. All of these cars come with a full bumper to bumper warranty. You don't have to worry about anything. Your subscription covers everything uh, fascinating scott. I'm just curious to when it comes to charging because people are essentially renting these vehicles. How do they make sure that they have a full charge to use the electric vehicle? Well, the vehicles usually come with between two and 300 miles of charge. One of the things that we did with our 23,000 car order is we made sure that we're only getting vehicles that we feel have enough range. So are cut off was at 250 miles of range. No cars that have less than that amount of battery range were allowed into the order. And there are three levels of charging. Level one, level two, level three, 85% of customers today are still using level one charging, which means you're using the converter that comes with a car and plugging it into a 1 10 outlet. You get between 25 30 miles a night. The average electric car is only used for 25 miles a day. So it does work. Level two charging is becoming a bigger and bigger part of modern life and then level three charging a Dc fast charger where you can get a full 250 miles plus of charge in under an hour is right now following evey registration. So in markets like California there is a DC fast charger or a supercharger system from Tesla within 10 miles of every California. That is also the case in new markets like Miami florida, austin texas where we're starting to see a lot of E. V. Registrations. The infrastructure does tend to follow registrations and until the infrastructure is there people are going to be using level one and level two charging what's the average cost as scott to take advantage of this essential renting service when it comes to electric vehicles and as you add to your fleet in this new deal, do you expect that cost for consumers to go up or down? Well, first of all we're a little different than a rental car company and that these are not rental cars. This is a car that you're gonna get to drive. You put it in your driveway, you keep control over it, you keep it as long as you want as you need it and it's month to month access for a car. Um, the entry level price is $490 a month that gets you into a Tesla model three. We have options that take you from 4 90 a month up to $1000 a month depending on what matters to you. That brings down your start fee, but everything is included with the car. So you've got the title registration, maintenance, repair, roadside assistance and as of this week we're also now offering auto insurance. So you don't have to do any kind of extra work to put it on your own policy like you would with a traditional east car. Okay, now that's fascinating. So the auto insurance scott that'll cover everything, including collision damage, anything that could potentially be a liability to the driver, is that correct? That's right. And our future view of where insurance goes is really exciting because these are connected cars we're going to be offering ultimately time based episodic insurance, which means that if you don't drive the car, you don't pay for insurance. If you drive the car for the day, it might be 35 or $7. All of these things are unlocked because you've got a fully connected car and as cars are becoming more autonomous, more connected, more technologically advanced. All of these things are going to just wash into your experience as a driver. And I think that making it easier, making it cheaper is really the name of the game. That is a very dynamic pricing structure for insurance scott and I'm sure probably is enticing to a lot of customers, a lot of potential customers as well. Any indication as to how much money people could save with that. Well, the average car payment in America today is about $650 no matter what you drive. So we've got that beat pretty significantly a rental car where you're looking at a Tesla model three for example, is over $100 a day. We work out to about $20 a day, so it's not about 20 or 30% cheaper we're talking about. This is five times cheaper in terms of auto insurance. We know that people aren't gonna buy our auto insurance if it's more expensive than their own auto insurance, the real benefit initially is going to be offering month to month insurance so you don't have to put up an annual premium. And that sort of is a custom tailored insurance product that really works for month to month subscriptions. Alright, Scott. We've got to leave it there, fascinating, congratulations Again on the deal expanding your fleet. I'm sure a lot of viewers excited to take a ride in one of these vehicles that scott Painter, founder and ceo of Autonomy