Tesla Model Y
Photo: Jae C. Hong/ AP
Teslas will apparently no longer be used as company cars at the IT group SAP in the future. According to information from Handelsblatt, SAP is removing the electric car manufacturer from its list of suppliers.
Even if Tesla is still very successful and the manufacturer's Model Y replaced the Toyota Corolla as the world's best-selling car in 2023, such decisions can be quite painful. According to the newspaper, SAP has a total of 29,000 vehicles in its fleet.
Trend away from Tesla?
Above all, this could strengthen a trend. The car rental companies Hertz and Sixt recently announced that they would significantly reduce the proportion of electric vehicles in their large fleets. Tesla, as the largest electric car manufacturer, played a special role, more or less openly.
Hertz pointed out, among other things, that repeated price cuts by Tesla had also reduced the resale value of fleet vehicles. This is also crucial when calculating the costs of company cars that are only used by the respective company for a few years and then sold as used cars. On the other hand, repairs to damage to electric cars are about twice as expensive as to combustion engines, it was said at the time.
In December, manager magazin reported that Sixt no longer wanted to purchase any more Tesla models for the time being. The inventory of Tesla models in the rental car and subscription fleet is also being reduced. In addition to numerous other criticisms that affect all electric models, Sixt criticized the fact that the residual values of some manufacturers had fallen "particularly significantly" and that discount campaigns were to blame. Tesla had responded to declining sales figures in recent months with sometimes significant discounts.
According to Handelsblatt, Steffen Krautwasser, the fleet manager at SAP, complains about unpunctual deliveries from Tesla. And then again: "Tesla's list prices fluctuate more than other manufacturers, which makes planning more difficult and poses a higher risk for us."
mamk/dpa