According to Electrek, Mistergreen, a Dutch car rental company that exclusively focuses on “Tesla - only rentals” and had placed its bets on the autonomous driving Robotaxi business model, is now on the verge of bankruptcy. The company's financial debacle serves as a stark reminder of the heavy losses sustained in the used electric vehicle market by those who unquestioningly accepted Elon Musk's assertion that “Tesla is an appreciating asset.”

Mistergreen's business strategy was predicated on two fundamental assumptions. Firstly, it believed that operating a fleet of Tesla vehicles would not result in depreciation. Instead, these cars would act as Robotaxis, generating a steady stream of income. Secondly, the company held that Tesla vehicles outperformed others in the market in terms of battery quality, software upgrades, energy efficiency, range, and the Supercharger network. It also assumed that Tesla's hardware and software were already primed for future autonomous driving, thus anticipating that Tesla vehicles would exhibit superior residual value performance.

However, the reality has played out quite differently. Over the past two years, Tesla has slashed the prices of its new vehicles, which has had a direct and negative impact on the residual value of used electric vehicles. Simultaneously, Tesla's promise that “consumer vehicles can be transformed into driverless taxis” has remained unfulfilled. Its Full Self - Driving system has consistently fallen short of meeting regulatory requirements for unsupervised driving.

As a result, Mistergreen was compelled to make substantial impairments, amounting to millions of euros, on its fleet assets. At its zenith, Mistergreen boasted an impressive fleet of over 4,000 Tesla vehicles. But this also left the company highly vulnerable to the sharp decline in residual values.

For the average buyer, Tesla's price reductions are a welcome development. However, for a rental company that held thousands of vehicles and had promised high residual values, it was a devastating blow. Mistergreen had issued bonds to finance its vehicle purchases. But since last year, it has been unable to repay them, with investors estimated to have incurred losses in the tens of millions of dollars.

Currently, several rental companies from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany are poised to take over its remaining fleet.