Matt Traylen, head of financial services and ownership models at Faraday Future, has been working on several different ownership and access models for the company’s planned 2018 launch into the luxury EV market.
Specifically, he is looking at companies that are “taking a leap of faith, in terms of different ways of getting revenue, and why consumers want to stay with them,” he said at AFI 2017.
“You look at the past few years, and at the way we traditionally use certain assets, [such as] hotels. Then, Airbnb came along and transformed the ownership model there,” Traylen said. “That’s beginning to make us realize that we’re not only looking at, perhaps, [changing] the traditional ownership model, but how does that apply to the world of finance? We need to start asking the question: ‘Why do people want, or need, to have a car?’”
In particular, Traylen looked at ADT Security Services, the home security company, and how it manages growth in its business.
“There are a lot more innovative companies out there, perhaps, that are trying to take some of their marketshare,” Traylen said.
If the startup decides to offer a subscription model, it’s important to identify “key components” that will keep a person loyal to a brand, and not “swapping out every two to three months,” Traylen said.