Hire or buy a Powerwall dolly? Work out your break-even
A Tesla Powerwall dolly costs £2,500–£2,833 to buy, including VAT. Hiring one from us is £90 a day plus delivery. Which works out cheaper depends on how many Powerwalls you fit and how far the jobs are from Manchester, so put in your own numbers.
At 2 installs a month, that is about 7 months.
Over the next 12 months you would spend about £3,840 hiring, more than the £2,083 a dolly costs before VAT. At this rate, owning one is cheaper; hire makes sense for overflow, or while you build up the work.
ALL FIGURES EX VAT. HIRE IS £90 A DAY OR £250 A WEEK PLUS DELIVERY AT 55P A ROAD MILE PER TRIP, FROM £55.
Break-even at a glance
The same sum at a range of road distances from Manchester, for day hire, across the usual range of purchase prices.
Hire per install is the £90 day rate plus delivery for a one-day hire at that distance: the cheaper of drop-off and collection or the driver staying on site, from £55. Break-even is the number of installs at which hiring has cost more than buying at £2,500–£2,833 including VAT, compared before VAT. See how delivery is priced.
What the sums leave out
Owning costs more than the price
Somewhere to keep a 1.7 m frame, tyres and hydraulic brakes to look after, and room for it in the van on every job.
Hiring needs booking
A delivered dolly arrives the day before or the morning of the install, so it is booked around your dates rather than sitting in the van.
A dolly you own can be sold on
The calculator ignores resale. If you would sell one later, the real cost of buying is lower than the price you pay.
For the specification, what Tesla's manuals require and how the dolly fits each Powerwall, see the guide to the Tesla Powerwall dolly.
Straight answers
Does VAT change the break-even?
No. Our hire rates are quoted ex VAT and dolly prices usually include it, so the calculator takes VAT off the purchase price to compare like with like. If you are not VAT registered, both sides go up by the same 20%, so the number of installs it takes to break even stays the same.
Is weekly hire cheaper than day hire?
When installs bunch together, yes. A week's hire is £250 and one delivery covers the week, so three installs in one week 30 road miles away cost £320 in all, about £107 each, against £160 each on day hire.
When does buying make more sense?
When Powerwall work is steady. At two installs a month with delivery from Manchester, a dolly of your own typically pays for itself in two to eight months, depending on distance. Hire earns its place when the work is occasional, when your own dolly is on another job, or while you are proving the work before spending £2,500.
Hiring for the next job?
Tell us the postcode and the dates. We will come back with availability and a delivery price.