Time It Takes To Repair Tesla May Prevent Widespread Adoption in NYC TLC Industry

EVs are certainly a matter of WHEN, not IF. As we've written previously, there are some concerns among NYC drivers and fleets that prevent faster adoption - one is the time it takes to repair an EV

We recently reported on an accident involving one of the Tesla yellow cabs, owned by Drive Sally. Thankfully, it seems not one was hurt in the accident, but the car was significantly damaged. Sally, helpfully, has an active social media and occasionally keeps its followers up to date on the status of the repair. It’s last update was on February 3rd (i.e. 9 days after the accident) and it seems like the time it’s taking to repair the car is lasting longer than expected. In fact, Sally takes a bit of a jab at Tesla tweeting “Let’s move faster”.

To be clear, we are believers in the upcoming EV revolution and are fans of Tesla / Elon Musk. However, we still think it’s too early for most (note: not all) NYC TLC drivers and fleets to adopt EVs en masse for several reasons, which we’ve written about previously. For example, imagine if the Tesla yellow cab vehicle didn’t belong to a well capitalized fleet (i.e. has cash to burn), such as Sally. How could an independent owner/operator afford:

(1) For his or her car to be out of service for so long? A similar accident on a Camry or other commonly used TLC car would have been completed by now

(2) Afford the parts that can only be bought directly from the manufacturer and worked on by a handful of body shops. In addition, those body shops will have pricing power (remember most TLC drivers and fleets do not carry physical damage policies)

We’ll keep you up to date on anything we hear. We look forward to more EVs on NYC roads, but also don’t want to see anyone suffer financial strain because they underestimated the current ground realities of the EV ecosystem for NYC TLC cars. Luckily, it seems Sally has a back up Tesla yellow cab!

The Auto Marketplace NYC (fka TLCMKT) Newsletter is written by Dawood Mian, Founder & CEO of Auto Marketplace NYC. He covers the NYC for-hire transportation industry and related news. Search Auto Marketplace NYC for cars, parts, tires, mechanics, reviews & more. Find great deals at TLCMKT.COM