Bite Squad to Improve Its Environmental Footprint, Get Ahead of Self-Driving Trend with Tesla Model 3 Fleet

In a recent blog post, Minneapolis-based Bite Squad – a restaurant delivery service which currently operates in more than 30 cities around the United States – announced its intention to swap out its current fleet of hybrid vehicles with Tesla Model 3s. The company will begin by testing the Tesla Model 3 in its home-office market. The company will be doing this for two reasons: to improve its environmental footprint and to eventually take advantage of the self-driving feature that Tesla is promising.

“On an average day, we have delivery drivers navigating thousands of food deliveries through the streets of 30 metropolitan markets across the country,” said Bite Squad co-founder and CEO Kian Salehi. “Our existing hybrid cars significantly cut emissions, but an all-electric fleet would be completely emissions-free. This is where we want to be.”  

Among its delivery areas, Bite Squad currently deploys a hybrid-electric fleet of hundreds of Toyota Prius automobiles, supplementing its squad of employee drivers’ personal vehicles.

“We’re always looking for ways to implement advancing technologies in our company,” Salehi said. “When we launched in 2012, the goal was to reduce the environmental impact of our fleet by using as many hybrid vehicles as we could. The goal is the same today, but the technology has changed. We now have an opportunity to further reduce our impact with an affordable battery-powered car.”

The Tesla Model 3 has an EPA-rated all-electric range of 220 miles. It offers semi self-driving capabilities with Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot system, and will eventually have full self-driving capability with software updates promised to be rolled out over time. According to Salehi, the self-driving feature is a big draw, and a considerable factor in the decision to test the Model 3.

“Automated cars are the future of food delivery,” he said.