It might break some San Diegans’ budgets to buy a Tesla, but renting one is a different story.

Culver City-based Tesloop launched a new service in San Diego this week that lets consumers rent the all-electric Model 3 for a flat fee of $49 to drive one way to Los Angeles.

The company started in 2015, when then 16-year-old Haydn Sonnad came up with the idea to rent out seats in Teslas shuttling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Tesloop still offers a ride-hailing service complete with a driver, but its latest move allows consumers to rent the vehicle and drive the cars themselves.

All the cars in the company’s fleet are all-electric Teslas — hence the name Tesloop — but Elon Musk’s signature brand has no connection to the startup, which has a fleet of 12 Teslas.


For now, there is no special round-trip fee. Instead, a drive back to San Diego from Los Angeles would also cost $49, making the final cost around $100 to go to Los Angeles and back.

“It’s $49 for the whole car, so you can bring four friends and have a great time,” said Sonnad, now 19. He thinks it’s a relatively cheap way to travel to Los Angeles, especially if you bring friends and split the cost.

To rent, drivers must provide a valid driver’s license, be at least 25 years old, pass a California Department of Motor Vehicles record check and pass a background check. Drivers also must pay a refundable damage deposit of $300.

Renting out a Model X, Tesla’s luxury crossover SUV that seats up to five people, is a flat fee of $79.


Users can schedule their trip on Tesloop.com. Pick-up spots are downtown San Diego on the corner of B and India streets, as well as the Tesla supercharger station in Sorrento Valley. The drop-off spot in Los Angeles is the Westfield Culver City shopping mall.

The Business of Tesloop

Sonnad said the company is not profitable yet, mainly because of its efforts to expand. Tesloop’s workforce has grown from a staff of 60 to about 103, including 65 drivers, 25 customer-service representatives, six engineers and a leadership team. He said the company has received some money from investors but declined to provide dollar amounts.

However, he said on a per-car basis, the business is profitable. Sonnad said it takes one month of driving a Tesla to turn a profit. For example, some cars that Tesloop operates bring in up to $18,000 a month, while it costs $3,000 a month to lease.

The company now has nine Model X cars, two Model 3s and one Model S.


Four of Tesloop’s Tesla vehicles (two Model Xs and two Model 3s) are from people who decided to rent out their car to the company. Almost entirely by word of mouth, the company has 200 vehicles on a waiting list to be used by Tesloop.

Sonnad said an owner who lets Tesloop rent their car, receives a payment for making the car available, more if it gets booked and additional money per mile once rented. He said a car rented full-time by Tesloop can make $2,000 a month.

Tesloop has ordered eight Model 3 vehicles, but that model has been plagued by delays. In a leaked email to employees Tuesday, CEO Musk said Tesla will be able to speed up production to 6,000 cars per week after upgrades to its two main factories, said CNBC. However, factories had to be shut down for several days to upgrade equipment.

1 / 8 Haydn Sonnad, the 19-year-old founder & chief evangelism officer of Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, drives along Harbor Drive in one of the Tesla Model 3 cars. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 2 / 8 Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, with the Tesla Model 3. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 8 Haydn Sonnad, the 19-year-old founder & chief evangelism officer of Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, withTesla Model 3 cars. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 8 Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, with the Tesla Model 3. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 8 Haydn Sonnad, the 19-year-old founder & chief evangelism officer of Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, withTesla Model 3 cars. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 8 Haydn Sonnad, the 19-year-old founder & chief evangelism officer of Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, withTesla Model 3 cars. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 8 Each car in the Tesloop fleet of cars has a name. The startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, with the Tesla Model 3. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 8 Haydn Sonnad, the 19-year-old founder & chief evangelism officer of Tesloop, a startup company that uses a fleet of Tesla cars to drive passengers, is starting its one-way rental service between select cities, including San Diego, called Cruiser, withTesla Model 3 cars. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)


Tesloop said not having to pay for gasoline makes the cost to operate the vehicles incredibly cheap. They also said their most-used cars, that rack up to 20,000 miles a month, have required relatively little maintenance. Plus, Tesla has an eight-year unlimited mile warranty on the motor.

Other services

For those who would prefer not to drive, their ride-sharing service is available for $29 to $79 a ride, based on day and time.

Tesloop it said it shuttles between locations in greater Los Angeles and San Diego areas four to six times a day and between Los Angeles and Palm Springs six times a day. The company stopped its shuttle in 2016 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles because its benefits were competing with low-cost flights.

The car rental service is also available between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.


Amenities for all trips include free wireless Internet, snacks and drinks, phone and device charging, neck pillows and noice-canceling headphones.

The Future

Sonnad sounds like a seasoned tech industry pitchman when he talks about the future of the company. He talks of using blockchain technology, autonomous vehicles and cars that are constantly in use, instead of parked and not making money.

“Our goal in the next few years,” he said while parked in a Tesla parked at Shelter Island, “is to create a platform that can facilitate all of your mobility needs with electric, autonomous vehicles, which effectively acts as a shared fleet at a very low cost.”

Sonnad is taking a year off since graduating from Agoura High School near Malibu. He is debating going to Loyola Marymount University or saving money and having a more flexible schedule by going to community college in Santa Monica.


His father, Rahul Sonnad, serves as Tesloop’s CEO and a co-founder. If he goes to college, Haydn Sonnad, who is involved in day-to-day operations, may have to let go of some control.

“I’ll have to take a baby step back from work,” Haydn Sonnad said, “and five baby steps back from leisure.”


Business

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

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