SAP no longer wants to use Tesla electric cars as company cars in the future. After Information from the “Handelsblatt”
the software company removes the electric car manufacturer from its list of suppliers. “The list prices fluctuate Tesla “stronger than other manufacturers, which makes planning more difficult and poses a higher risk for us,” said Steffen Krautwasser, fleet manager at SAP, explaining the decision.
Tesla has recently reduced prices several times – this depresses the prices of used vehicles
– and becomes a problem for major customers. Another point of criticism: According to Krautwasser, Tesla often delivers the cars earlier than agreed, which leads to difficulties in storage and logistics when SAP orders large quantities.
Sixt and Hertz also no longer want Teslas
This could strengthen a trend. Recently the car rental companies Hertz and Sixt to 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.
In December, manager magazin reported that Sixt no longer wants 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 points that affect all electric models, Sixt criticized the fact that some manufacturers’ residual values had fallen “particularly significantly” and that discount campaigns were to blame – such as those from Tesla, with which the manufacturer tried to stop declining sales figures.
Hertz also pointed out that repeated price cuts by Tesla have reduced the resale value of fleet vehicles. This is also crucial when calculating the costs of company cars, which companies usually only use for a few years and then sell again 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.
Chinese providers are becoming more and more attractive
Krautwasser also states that Tesla’s competitors in the car market are also becoming increasingly attractive to SAP. “Tesla’s technological lead is shrinking, other manufacturers are catching up and offering vehicles with good quality and a good price-performance ratio.” This includes not only well-known German companies, but above all also Chinese companies such as BYD or Nio, which are increasingly pushing into the European market. The manufacturer Polestar, which is owned by the Chinese provider Geely and its Swedish subsidiary Volvo, is also particularly popular with SAP.
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: If other major buyers follow the example of SAP, Sixt and Hertz, such decisions could become even more painful for the US manufacturer .