Calculator
Cybercab fleet cost and ROI calculator
Change any number and the model changes with it. Nothing here is a forecast: it is a way of finding out which of Tesla’s unpublished figures your case actually depends on.
Tesla is taking interest from businesses that want to buy Cybercabs, but has not published pricing, delivery timing or owner-operator terms. So the three inputs that matter most are marked as assumptions, and you should treat any calculator that fills them in for you with suspicion. What is and is not published is kept on its own dated page.
How much does it cost to run a Cybercab?
At the starting assumptions below, about $1,719 a car a month, not counting the purchase price. The largest lines are cleaning and interior resets at $758, insurance at $300 and tires and maintenance at $284; the other 4 lines add $377 between them. Cleaning comes out on top because nobody is in the car to tidy it between rides.
The same car would take in about $2,730 after the network’s cut, leaving $1,011. The running costs are estimates you can check against local quotes; the fare and the network’s share are Tesla’s unpublished numbers, so treat the earnings as the figure to test, not a forecast.
Net monthly cash flow, fleet of 3
$3,033
Payback period
30months
To recover $90,000 of vehicles from operating cash flow.
Annual unlevered return
40.4%
A year of net on the purchase price, before financing, taxes and depreciation.
Where the money goes, per vehicleShow the splitHide the split$1,011 net
- Passenger fares
- $3,640
- Tesla Network commission, 25%
- −$910
- Your revenue
- $2,730
- Energy
- −$189
- Tires and maintenance
- −$284
- Cleaning and interior resets
- −$758
- Insurance
- −$300
- Staging and parking
- −$100
- Mersul subscription
- −$56
- Card processing on service provider payments
- −$31
- Total cost
- −$1,719
4,732 miles driven for 3,640 paid, per vehicle, per month · 37% margin on your revenue
This is a model, not a forecast. It ignores financing, taxes, depreciation and the resale value of the vehicle, and it assumes every paid mile is actually sold. Three of the inputs above are marked as assumptions because Tesla has published none of them, and the payback figure moves further on those three than on everything else combined.
Fleet of 3, per month
Every figure below is the whole fleet’s total for the month, added up across the 3 vehicles entered above — the same model the summary card runs, laid out one line at a time instead of behind a fold.
- Passenger fares
- $10,920
- Tesla Network commission, 25%
- −$2,730
- Your revenue
- $8,190
- Energy
- −$568
- Tires and maintenance
- −$852
- Cleaning and interior resets
- −$2,275
- Insurance
- −$900
- Staging and parking
- −$300
- Mersul subscription
- −$169
- Card processing on service provider payments
- −$94
- Total cost
- −$5,157
- Net
- $3,033
14,196 miles driven for 10,920 paid across the fleet, 37% margin on your revenue, and 30 months to cover $90,000 of vehicles, a 40% annual unlevered return.
Where the numbers come from
Why each default is what it is.
Three kinds of number: what Tesla has not published, what Mersul has itself set, and an openly stated estimate. These explain the starting point — the fleet breakdown above updates live as you change it.
Where the starting numbers come from
- Price per vehicle$30,000
- Unpublished by Tesla. A round placeholder, not an estimate — it changes the payback figure and nothing else.
- Average passenger fare, per paid mile$1.00
- Unpublished by Tesla. Urban ride-hail fares run $0.80 to $1.20 a mile and a robotaxi is expected to undercut a driven car, so the default sits in the middle. Surge is a higher number here, not a different model.
- Tesla Network commission25%
- Unpublished by Tesla. Ride-hail networks take 25% to 30% of the fare, which leaves an owner-operator about $0.75 of a $1.00 mile. The split is kept as two inputs so a surge fare and a fixed cut can move separately.
- Paid miles per day130 miles
- Our estimate for a car working a full day in a dense market: eight to ten completed urban trips. It is a utilization assumption, not a measurement.
- Extra miles driven, beyond each paid mile30%
- Our estimate of repositioning, returns from drop-offs and charging trips: about 30% more driving than what is paid for. Energy and tires are costed on the driven figure, not the paid one.
- Operating days per month28 days
- A full month less two days out of service for maintenance, tires and anything that takes the car off the road.
- Energy cost per mile$0.04
- Our estimate from a small EV at around 4.5 miles a kWh on commercial off-peak charging. Public fast charging is well above this; a depot is what the default assumes.
- Interior cleans per week2.5
- Our estimate, about one reset every 35 to 40 paid rides, and the number we most expect to be too low. A busy car generates cleaning events constantly.
- Cost per clean$70
- Our estimate of what a routine mobile interior reset costs an owner today. Biohazard work is several times this and is not what the default models.
- Tires and maintenance per mile$0.06
- Our estimate for a heavy EV on ride-hail duty: tire wear dominates, with cabin filters, washer fluid and alignment behind it.
- Insurance per vehicle per month$300
- Our estimate of a commercial autonomous rideshare liability baseline. No carrier has published a rate for an owner-operated Cybercab.
- Staging and parking per vehicle per month$100
- A dedicated off-street depot or charging stall for one car. It is a per-vehicle figure and the model multiplies it by the fleet.
- Mersul subscription$56.33 per vehicle
- Not an assumption: our own indicative launch price, so it follows the vehicle count rather than being typed in. It is a $49.00 base for the account plus $40.00 a car, so the rate a fleet works out at falls as it grows — $56.33 a vehicle across 3, $44.90 across ten. Nothing is billed today.
The three marked unpublished are tracked on the purchase-status page, and will be replaced with published figures the day Tesla releases them.
What moves the answer
Four inputs decide almost all of it.
- Fare and the network’s cut
- Move the fare by ten cents or the commission by five points and the payback period moves by months. Tesla has published neither, so these are the numbers to argue about first. Surge belongs in the fare; the commission stays where it is.
- Utilization
- Paid miles per day is not the same as miles driven. Deadheading between rides costs energy and tread and earns nothing, and no published figure exists for what the ratio will be.
- Cleaning frequency
- The one cost that has no equivalent in a private car and no driver to absorb it. Two and a half interior resets a week is a guess; in a busy market it will be more.
- Purchase price
- It does not change the monthly figure at all — only how long you wait to get it back. That is why the model reports both.
The cost side is the part you can act on now.
Cleaning, tires, charging, glass, recovery and staging are the same work whatever Tesla eventually charges for the car. That is the half Mersul is built for, and the half we are lining up service providers for now, market by market.