Owners of older EVs don’t exactly have options if something breaks after the original warranty expires. A Bay Area startup called Amber thinks it can help them navigate this minefield, starting with Tesla owners.
The company, which was founded in early 2023, announced Wednesday that it has launched a new Tesla aftermarket warranty product called AmberCare for Tesla Model Y, 3, S and X owners. There will be different plans, ranging from $40 a month to about $120 a month, which covers the drive units, battery and more. When owners file a claim, Amber works with specialist repair shops to find the correct parts and correct the fault and will transport the vehicle.
The launch of AmberCare is a reminder that we’re still in uncharted territory when it comes to EVs and what happens to them over years (and tens of thousands of miles) of use.
It’s a crowded market. While electric vehicles tend to require less regular service than internal combustion vehicles, things still break — and sometimes the breaks are parts that are above and beyond what an auto shop is used to dealing with. Some stores charge impressive prices for repairs or, say, damaged EVs should be discarded altogether. Existing extended warranty products sometimes do not cover EV-specific components. And if people own more limited-use EVs (compliance cars or luxury vehicles from relatively new startups, for example), the problem can be even harder to solve.
Amber CEO Joe Pak tells TechCrunch that AmberCare is an attempt to address all of that. “Our vision is to create the first vertically integrated aftermarket warranty platform,” he says, because right now “the ability to really serve [EVs]and the parts that will actually replace what can break — that’s not yet mature.”
Image Credits: Amber
To do this, Amber works with repair shops across the country and locates and helps source high-demand parts. To achieve its lofty goals, Amber will raise $3.18 million in recently announced seed funding from a round co-led by Era and Primer Sazze, with Alcove Fund, Virta Ventures, Global Millennial Capital and Root & Shoot Ventures. The company is launching AmberCare in 10 states: Florida, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Rhode Island and Tennessee. (Amber plans to roll out in California by the end of the year, as the state requires non-auto dealers who sell aftermarket warranties to list them as insurance products.)
AmberCare is the latest addition to a growing used EV economy. A new crop of businesses have emerged dedicated to efforts such as recycling the battery packs that power cars – including Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel – or the “digital maintenance” of EVs and AVs, such as Kinetic backed by Lux Capital.
Pak says he sees two sets of customers for AmberCare, at least initially. One group is anyone looking to buy a used EV but scared away by the thought of costly, time-consuming repairs. For them, “we’re giving them the idea that they can limit their repair costs” with AmberCare, he says. The second is the set of owners who keep the previous Tesla warranty of their electric car.
Amber only has a team of five people right now, but they already have a small group of customers using an early access version of AmberCare. With the launch of the product, Pak says he believes the best way to get new customers will be through interaction with the EV community — especially in online forums, where die-hards tend to spend a lot of time discussing the ins and outs of EV ownership. such as addressing the occasional problems of major repairs.
There are other unexpected things to consider during the EV repair process that Pak believes AmberCare can help with, such as transportation. “Not every trailer can tow an EV, it has to be flat,” he says.
Pak also says he’s aware of the challenge of building a business around extended warranties at a time when people are pretty allergic to that phrase, thanks to years of phone scams. So far, though, “customers are really getting it.”
“You can even say the words ‘extended warranty’ and they’ll get it. And actually, it’s actually better for us to say it up front that way,” he says.
Besides, “there are people who ship their cars from Ohio to San Diego to get them [their EVs] fixed,” says Pak. “There is already a gap in the market for this solution.”
This story has been updated to include information about Amber’s California rollout timeline.
