In September, Uber announced that it was shutting down its auto-leasing business Xchange Leasing. We now have confirmation from a report by Wall Street Journal that the auto leasing business is being bought by startup Fair.com.
The report from WSJ says that Fair.com will purchase Xchange Leasing for an undisclosed amount. Fair.com offers alternative and flexible leases where you can keep a car for as long as you like. Uber will take a stake in Fair and will also offer access to Fair’s website through the Uber app. Fair in return will offer about 150 jobs to workers.
The move is not all that surprising. Uber had misjudged the average loss per vehicle, originally estimating that it would cost about $500 per vehicle, but later found that number to be around $9,000 per car. That’s a substantial difference. Uber had purchased a little less than 40,000 vehicles for Xchange Leasing, and operated in 14 showrooms across the US. The value of these vehicles was about $400 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
