A few hours ago, I was wondering why so many Uber drivers these days were driving Teslas. Then I took Ubers to and from my physical therapy session and I got one Tesla on the way there and a different Tesla on the way back. I've redacted their license plate numbers but here's what these two gents were driving…
And I asked both of them about the mystery and I got roughly the same answer twice: Do the math. It seems there's some sort of alliance between Uber, Tesla and Hertz Rent-a-Car. Hertz bought a whole mess of Teslas — that's probably how Elon Musk got the dough which he blew to buy Twitter — and they rent them to Uber drivers on surprisingly favorable terms.
Both drivers ticked off the math to me. I didn't take notes but they were roughly the same. Fuel for a Tesla costs almost nothing. Fuel for a Prius cost one of those drivers a fortune even though it was a hybrid. Hertz pays most maintenance charges. The guy who drove me home ended up buying his. The guy who took me there has another car (not a Tesla) for his everyday activities and only drives the Tesla for Uber missions. And they both said they really like driving a Tesla.
I shoulda known. I'm a big believer in the principle of "Follow the Money." It's the answer to more questions than we might imagine.