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owner of age eV are n’t exactly flush with selection if something breaks after the original warranty expires . One Bay Area startup prognosticate Amber thinks it can help them pilot that minefield , start with Tesla owners .
The company , founded in former 2023 , announced Wednesday it has launched a new aftermarket Tesla warranty product call AmberCare for Tesla Model Y , 3 , S and X owners . There will be different plans , wander from $ 40 per calendar month to around $ 120 per calendar month , that cover the drive units , the battery and more . When proprietor file a claim , Amber works with qualified repair store to find the right part and limit what ’s wrong , and will transport the vehicle .
The launching of AmberCare is a reminder that we ’re still in unmapped soil when it issue forth to EVs , and what happens to them over days ( and tens of thousands of stat mi ) of utilisation .
It ’s a pregnant market . While EVs tend to need less regular service than inner combustion vehicles , things still break — and sometimes what breaks are part that are above and beyond what an machine shop is used to dealing with . Some workshop chargeeye - water pricesfor the fixes or say discredited eV should be scrapped in a flash . live extended warrantee products sometimes do n’t cover EV - specific parts . And if people own more limited - run eV ( compliance cars or luxury vehicles from relatively new startups , for example ) the problem can be even punishing to lick .
Amber CEO Joe Pak tells TechCrunch that AmberCare is an effort to address all of this . “ Our vision is to ramp up the first vertically integrated aftermarket warranty platform , ” he says , because right now “ the capacity to actually service [ EVs ] , and the parts to actually exchange what might be broken — that is not mature yet . ”
To do that , Amber has been working with fixture shop around the country , and name and helping germ eminent - requirement theatrical role . To attain its lofty goals , Amber will put $ 3.18 million in newly announce seed funding to work , from a round cobalt - led by Era and Primer Sazze , with Alcove Fund , Virta Ventures , Global Millennial Capital and Root & Shoot Ventures joining . The company is launching AmberCare in 10 United States Department of State : Florida , Connecticut , New Jersey , New Hampshire , Michigan , Minnesota , Pennsylvania , Ohio , Rhode Island and Tennessee . ( Amber is purpose to plunge in California by the end of the year , as the state want non - self-propelling dealers selling aftermarket warranties to register those as insurance product . )
AmberCare is the late addition to a grow economy built around used eV . A new crop of businesses have popped up that are dedicate to efforts like recycling the assault and battery packs that power the cars — includingRedwood cloth , base by ex - Tesla CTO JB Straubel — or tending to the “ digital maintenance ” of EVs and Ab , likeLux Capital - backed Kinetic .
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Pak say he pick up two customer group for AmberCare , at least at the first . One group is anyone who is looking to buy a used EV but is frightened away by the idea of expensive , time - consuming repairs . For them , “ we give them the idea that they can crest their mend costs ” with AmberCare , he says . The 2d is the set of owner who hold onto their EV ’s retiring Tesla ’s warrant .
Amber only has a squad of five mass at the moment , but they already have a little radical of customers using an early access interpretation of AmberCare . With the product establish , Pak says he conceive the best agency to acquire new customers will be interacting with the EV residential district — especially on online forums , where die - hards tend to expend a lot of time hash out the ins and outs of EV ownership , including kvetching about the periodic worry of major haunt .
There are other unexpected thing to consider in the cognitive operation of repairing an EV that Pak thinks AmberCare can help with , like transportation . “ Not every tow truck can tow an EV , it has to be a flatbed , ” he says .
Pak also says he ’s cognisant of the challenge of building a business around extended warranties at a time when the great unwashed are pretty allergic to that phrase , thanks to eld of phone scams . So far , though , “ customers actually get it . ”
“ you may even say the words ‘ extended guarantee , ’ and they ’ll get it . And in fact , it ’s actually better for us just to just to say it upfront that way , ” he says .
Besides , “ there are people shipping their cars from Ohio to San Diego to get [ their eV ] fixed , ” Pak says . “ There ’s a gap in the grocery for this solvent already . ”
This tarradiddle has been update to include information about Amber ’s timeline for launching in California .
