A car subscription is convenient. The customer does not have to worry about financing, insurance or maintenance. Almost all costs are included in the subscription fee. In addition, with such subscriptions you can only try out electromobility first – before you then possibly buy an electric vehicle.
Almost everything is included: from insurance to winter tires
Roland Lunck from Lauf an der Pegnitz has been driving electric cars for a long time. And meanwhile the manager has got a taste for subscribing to the vehicles. His family is currently driving a Kia E-Soul. For him, the advantages are obvious: There are no additional costs beyond the subscription fee, he says. Everything is included: from insurance and repairs to winter and summer tires. He can also try out other electric cars.
Lunck pays 518 euros a month for the Nextmove car. That is above the normal tariff, because on the one hand the 18-year-old son is also on the road with the vehicle and on the other hand the monthly free kilometers granted in the original tariff are not enough for the family. That’s why another 500 kilometers were booked and with the driving fee for young drivers, this adds up to 518 euros per month. At the beginning of the subscription, a one-time entry fee of 199 euros was also due.
Electric car subscription fees start at 330 euros
The prices for electric cars at Nextmove start at 330 euros a month for a small VW e-up and go up to 850 euros for an Audi e-tron quattro – depending on the model. If you still need more than 1,000 free kilometers per month, enter several drivers or want to reduce the deductible, you pay extra again. It works similarly with other providers.
During the runtime, however, the customer only has to take over the electricity for driving and maintenance and check the windscreen washer fluid. “It actually pays off for me. I’ve calculated that against buying and leasing. With leasing, I have a two to three year commitment. Here I can get out at any time,” says Lunck. Whereby “anytime” in this case means monthly.
Waiting times for popular electric car models
If you are interested in such a subscription, you also have to be quite flexible yourself. The right model of your choice is not always available in a certain color and with a certain equipment. The customer may also have to accept longer waiting times. Because the providers of such car subscriptions also have problems getting the vehicles, says Nextmove’s managing director Stephan Möller.
According to this, manufacturers who offer particularly inexpensive vehicles are booked out for months. For example, VW even closed the order books for the small e-up, and Škoda and SEAT even removed their small cars from the range on the homepage. In January, the car could be ordered from SEAT for another three days. “These are things that are unimaginable in the combustion world,” says Möller.
Pay attention to the small print with electric car subscriptions
The provider Nextmove specializes in electric cars. In addition, there are now numerous other companies on the market, young startups, established car rental companies or the manufacturers themselves. In any case, one should take a very close look at the offers, advises ADAC spokesman Christian Buric:
“So you first have to pay attention to the small print. It is also important to look at the number of kilometers included in a tempting low-cost offer, or at the amount of the insurance deductible. Experience reports from the Internet will definitely help.” Christian Buric, ADAC
It becomes annoying, for example, if agreed delivery times are not adhered to. But there is not much you can do about it, because these agreements are mostly non-binding. There can also be unpleasant surprises when the vehicle is handed over after use, if appraisers discover damage to the car and there is a high final invoice.
Subscription as an interesting introduction to electromobility
Nevertheless, for Jan Burgard there is a lot to be said for such subscriptions. Burgard is the managing partner of the Berylls management consultancy, which has focused on the automotive industry. The auto expert emphasizes that such a subscription can be a good way to get in touch with electric cars for the first time without having to commit for a long time.
Conversely, it is also a good opportunity for manufacturers, especially those from China, to make their vehicles known on the market here. That should also be the reason why these offers are currently in greater demand. Some even expect steep growth.
Limited market share expected for electric car subscriptions
The car expert Professor Stefan Bratzel, however, puts it into perspective:
“The number of subscriptions will increase by a considerable amount, but due to the relatively high prices, the topic will not be a phenomenon that will ultimately reach 30 percent of new registrations, as is suspected in some places.” Stephan Bratzel, Director of the Center of Automotive Management
At the end of the day we are back to the three typical challenges of electromobility: the price, the range and the charging infrastructure. And anyone who neither has a charging facility at home nor at work and is dependent on public charging stations knows that there is still a lot of catching up to do at this point in this country.
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