Tesla To Launch In-House Rental Service: Report

In a now-deleted job listing, the American EV maker was looking for someone to “Lead the launch of the Tesla Rental Program in Texas.”

By: Iulian Dnistran

Aug 18, 2023 at 4:07am ET

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Tesla is reportedly preparing to launch an in-house pilot rental program that would function at its collision centers in Texas, according to a now-deleted job listing for “Program Manager, Business Development,” first spotted by @SawyerMerritt on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The link to the listing no longer works, returning a “404 page not found” error, but the original poster took a screenshot of the job description, which clearly states that the person’s main role will be to “Lead in the launch of the Tesla Rental Program in Texas.”

Based in Austin, Texas, the full-time position will “Support the team on launching a small pilot in all Texas collision sites,” as well as “Support the launch in any airports for the Tesla employee pilot.”

The link to the original job listing was also posted by Tesla’s Staff Program Manager, Melissa Porche Blakely, on her LinkedIn page, but that seems to have been also deleted, although it’s not clear why. Maybe the position has already been filled or maybe it should have been a more discrete posting that shouldn’t have garnered so much attention.

It’s also unclear how the rental program will roll out, whether it will only be available for collision center customers who bring in their out-of-warranty vehicles for repair, or if the pilot program will start at the collision center and then expand to more locations.

Another theory is that the Austin-based EV brand is trying to get into the car rental business, which would throw it in direct competition with giants such as Hertz, which – coincidentally or not – has 50,000 Tesla EVs in its fleet and is expecting another 50,000 from the Elon Musk-led firm.

What do you think?

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Currently, Tesla operates five such body shops in Texas, with two in the Houston area, one in Austin, one in Dallas, and another in San Antonio.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.