PrazoNow, a new Los Angeles-based car subscription service, is in discussion with several OEMs to gain access to inventory before the vehicles hit a dealership, Auto Finance News has learned.
Founded in 2015, PrazoNow initially operated as a company that let customers lease a Ford C-Max hybrid for two years without going to a dealership. But the company quickly learned from customers that two years was still considered “too long” and customers also wanted more variety, Rodrigo de Guzman, chief executive of PrazoNow, told AFN.
The company since pivoted to offer all-electric cars for renewable three-, six-, or nine-month terms. PrazoNow secured seed funding in June, led by Mucker Capital, and handed out its first subscription in early July, de Guzman added.
PrazoNow initially purchased all the Ford C-Max cars, and the intention is to continue purchasing vehicles from the other OEMs — including ones based in England, Germany, and Japan, he said. Currently, the company purchases all-electric, off-lease vehicles, but the conversations with automakers focus on gaining access to new inventory before the vehicles hit the dealerships. And while some car subscription services work with dealerships to move inventory off the lot, the goal for PrazoNow is to stay independent of dealerships.
“We certainly have relationships with dealerships,” de Guzman said, “but if you look at other companies, they are developing technology so dealerships can do what we do already … We aren’t focused on moving cars out of dealerships.”
PrazoNow will expand its fleets to 100 cars in a few months, in addition to expanding further into California — including the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California — “as much as we can,” he said. The company is also looking at Atlanta, where there has been an increase in interest and demand possibly sparked by Clutch, de Guzman said.
