Confidential Information Memorandum · SBA 7(a)
Take the Wheel LLC is a veteran-owned, SDVOSB-certified operator requesting a $195,000 SBA 7(a) term loan to place 3 Tesla Cybercabs into service across Pensacola, NAS Pensacola, the beach hotels, and PNS.
01 · The Ask
Structured to a lender overlay of 1.25× DSCR on the base case (2.40× run-rate, 1.80× in the year-1 ramp). The bank case still clears 1.25× on a full year at SBA-max rate; working capital bridges the first-year ramp. Veterans Advantage fee relief is expected on this size.
02 · Company
Take the Wheel LLC is a Florida limited liability company based in the Pensacola / Santa Rosa market. The company is SBA VOSB and SDVOSB certified and holds CAGE 1E1S2 for federal contracting. The operating thesis is simple: own a small, high-utilization fleet of purpose-built Tesla Cybercabs, plug them into Tesla’s robotaxi network, and overlay veteran-owned B2B contracts the network will not chase on its own — NAS Pensacola, PNS, and beach hotels.
U.S. Air Force veteran (2009–2014), Geospatial Analyst / Disseminations Technician, 27th Intelligence Squadron. Database operations and 100% DoD compliance. Subsequent career in high-consequence transportation: commercial trucking mentor with a perfect safety/on-time record, then BNSF Railway conductor and locomotive engineer. Currently Technical Support Specialist 3 in a regulated medical-device operation — uptime, compliance, and customer recovery.
Robotaxi is an operations business disguised as a tech story. The founder’s résumé is safety culture, dispatch discipline, and regulated systems — the same skills that keep a three-cab fleet insured, charged, clean, and on the road. Family-owned. No outside equity. The 11.4% cash injection is from the members.
03 · Market
Pensacola is not Austin. That is the point. Density is lower, but the paid trips are concentrated on four corridors a three-cab fleet can actually cover: PNS, downtown/Palafox, Pensacola Beach / Perdido, and NAS Pensacola / the Naval Aviation Museum. Florida already authorizes driverless commercial networks statewide. Waymo is in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami. The Panhandle is unclaimed.
UberX from PNS prints $64–$87 on the public rate card. A 7-mile blended Cybercab trip at $1.45/mi plus flag is ~$13 — cheap enough to take share, expensive enough to pay the note.
NAS Pensacola is a closed campus with known pain: incoming students, Blue Angels week, museum traffic, and rideshare drivers who cannot always clear the gate. Veteran-owned is not a slogan here. It is access.
2.5 million room nights. Properties already buy shuttle vans they cannot staff. A dedicated night/morning Cybercab on a monthly hotel contract is the second revenue stream after the Tesla network.
Blue Angels, beach air show, Mardi Gras, spring break, snowbird season. Visit Pensacola called early 2026 a standout winter. Event days are the utilization backstop, not the plan.
04 · Tesla data
| Item | Tesla figure | How we use it | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle cost | < $30,000 | Booked at $30,000 + 6% FL tax. No dealer markup assumed. | T1 |
| Operating cost | $0.20 / mile | Tesla-stated scenario only. Bank case itemizes energy, insurance, cleaning, tires. | T2 |
| Gross profit / cab / year | ~$30,000 | Upside benchmark. Base case contribution is modeled independently. | T3 |
| Owner share | ~$21,000 (≈70%) | Implies a 25–30% Tesla network take. We book 25% base, 30% stress. | T3 |
| Range / efficiency | 293 mi · 5.5 mi/kWh · 48 kWh | Energy = miles ÷ (5.5 × 0.90 pad efficiency) × $0.13/kWh. | T4 |
| Charging | Inductive only, >90% | $36,000 for three pads + 200A service. FCC UWB waiver Feb 2026. | T5 |
| Capacity | 2 passengers, no wheel/pedals | Pairs and airport couples, not family-of-four. Priced and routed accordingly. | T4 |
| Production | First units Feb 2026; volume YE 2026 | Loan funds site and pads first. Vehicles on Tesla fleet allocation. | T6 |
Tesla, Cybercab, FSD, and Robotaxi are trademarks of Tesla, Inc. This memorandum is not affiliated with Tesla. See Sources for full citations.
05 · Unit economics
Three locked presets, then live sliders. The ask stays $195,000. Changing trips, fare, take rate, or interest only changes repayment math — it does not rewrite the use of funds.
Run-rate DSCR
Covers2.40×
Target 1.25× · Year-1 ramp 1.80×
Monthly P&I
$2,523
$30,279 / year
Revenue / trip
$12.90
5,120 trips / cab / yr
Miles / cab / year
35,840
Energy $941 · $0.28/mi opex
Contribution / cab
$39,415
After 25% Tesla take and opex
Fleet NOI (run-rate)
Covers$72,644
Year-1 ramp $54,483
| Per vehicle, annual | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross fare revenue | $66,048 |
| Tesla take (25%) | −$16,512 |
| Net fare | $49,536 |
| Itemized opex (energy, insurance, clean, maintain) | −$10,121 |
| Contribution | $39,415 |
| × 3 vehicles | $118,244 |
| Company overhead + owner draw | −$45,600 |
| NOI, run-rate | $72,644 |
| Debt service | −$30,279 |
| Cash after debt | $42,365 |
Presets: Bank 12 trips/day at 12.8% · Base 16 trips/day at 9.5% · Tesla-stated uses Musk’s $0.20/mi opex shortcut. Payback on run-rate cash is 4.6 years.
06 · Use of funds
$195,000 debt plus $25,000 cash injection equals $220,000 of project cost. Vehicles and charging are equipment. The depot is real estate. The rest is working capital.
| Line | Amount | 7(a) bucket |
|---|---|---|
3× Tesla Cybercab Tesla-stated sub-$30,000 vehicle cost (We, Robot, Oct 2024; restated 2026). | $90,000 | Machinery & equipment |
Florida sales tax on vehicles 6% FL sales tax on $90,000 of titled equipment. | $5,400 | Machinery & equipment |
Inductive pads + electrical service 3 ground pads, 200A service, conduit, UWB alignment hardware. Tesla FCC waiver Feb 2026. | $36,000 | Machinery & equipment |
Pensacola depot site control City-center or airport-adjacent lot for overnight charging, cleaning, and staging. | $50,000 | Real estate / improvements |
Working capital (6 months) Insurance binder, energy, cleaning, and payroll-equivalent through ramp. | $18,600 | Working capital |
Insurance, permits, branding, legal TNC/AV registration, commercial insurance down payment, counsel, livery markings. | $10,000 | Working capital / FF&E |
Contingency Delivery slip, electrical change orders, hurricane-season float. | $10,000 | Working capital |
| Total project | $220,000 | $195,000 loan + $25,000 equity |
07 · Projections & costs
Hold-fleet is the underwriting case: same three vehicles, 3% fare lift, 2.5% cost inflation, year-1 ramp of 75%. Reinvest adds a cab whenever retained cash covers ~$39,800 of vehicle plus pad.
| Year | Cabs | Revenue | NOI | Debt service | DSCR | Cash after debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y1 | 3 | $148,608 | $43,083 | $30,279 | 1.42× | $12,804 |
| Y2 | 3 | $204,088 | $75,803 | $30,279 | 2.50× | $45,524 |
| Y3 | 3 | $210,211 | $79,064 | $30,279 | 2.61× | $48,785 |
| Y4 | 3 | $216,517 | $82,429 | $30,279 | 2.72× | $52,150 |
| Y5 | 3 | $223,013 | $85,901 | $30,279 | 2.84× | $55,622 |
Itemized at current slider values. Tesla-stated scenario collapses vehicle opex to $0.20/mi; bank and base cases keep the stack visible.
| Tesla network takenetwork | $49,536 |
| Electricity (grid, 90% pad efficiency)variable | $2,824 |
| Commercial AV insurancevariable | $12,600 |
| Cleaning & stagingvariable | $7,200 |
| Maintenance, tires, consumablesvariable | $4,500 |
| Connectivityvariable | $1,440 |
| Vehicle misc.variable | $1,800 |
| Depot utilitiesfixed | $4,800 |
| Software / dispatch overlayfixed | $2,400 |
| Accounting, legal, bookkeepingfixed | $4,800 |
| Marketing & partnershipsfixed | $6,000 |
| Permits & compliancefixed | $3,600 |
| Owner drawfixed | $24,000 |
| SBA 7(a) debt servicedebt | $30,279 |
| Cash after debt (run-rate) | $42,365 |
08 · Risks
First production is already on the Giga Texas floor, but unsupervised robotaxi-for-sale is still a Tesla decision. Mitigation: loan funds the depot and pads first; vehicles are the last draw. A commercially insured Tesla Model Y livery with FSD Supervised is the documented bridge if Cybercab slips two to four quarters.
Musk has described a ~25–30% Tesla share. We underwrite 25% base and 30% stress. Closing requires a Tesla fleet / network agreement or a written allocation. No Tesla paper, no vehicle draw.
Families, golf foursomes, and luggage-heavy airport parties stay on UberXL. We do not model those trips. The book is pairs, duty-status sailors, hotel couples, and downtown hops.
Florida law already allows driverless commercial networks. Insurance markets for AVs are still forming. The bank case books $4,800 per cab. Binder in hand is a closing condition.
The Gulf has a real off-season and a real storm season. Conservative case uses 310 operating days. Working capital and the $10,000 contingency exist so a two-week closure does not miss a note payment.
SBA 7(a) allows startups; lenders still want global cash flow. The managing member has current W-2 income and will personally guarantee. Owner draw is $24,000 in the base case and $0 in the bank case so the LLC can retain cash.
Close + 0–30 days
Site under contract. Electrical design. Tesla fleet order submitted. Insurance quotes bound.
Day 30–90
Pads and 200A service installed. TNC / AV registration. Hotel and airport partnership outreach.
Day 90–150
First vehicle delivery or documented allocation. Soft launch, one cab, daytime only.
Day 150–180
Three-cab operations. Monthly lender reporting pack: miles, utilization, DSCR, cash.
Year 2
Hold-fleet cash used to either prepay or add cabs. No additional 7(a) assumed.
09 · Sources
Cybercab retail target < $30,000
Tesla / Elon Musk, We, Robot event · Oct 10, 2024
Unveiled as a two-seat dedicated robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, production before 2027, priced under $30,000. Restated by Musk in 2026 that Tesla would sell Cybercab to customers at $30,000 or less.
Operating cost ~ $0.20 per mile
Tesla / Elon Musk public remarks on Cybercab unit economics · 2024–2026
Tesla has repeatedly contrasted ~$0.20/mi robotaxi operating cost with ~$0.77/mi human-driven ride-hail. This prospectus uses $0.20/mi only in the Tesla-stated scenario; the bank case itemizes energy, insurance, cleaning, and maintenance instead.
~$30,000 gross profit per vehicle per year
Tesla / Elon Musk on-stage robotaxi economics · 2024
Musk stated each car would generate about $30,000 in gross profit per year, with about $21,000 returning to the owner under a roughly 70/30 owner/Tesla split. Used as an upside benchmark, not the underwriting case.
EPA-preliminary Cybercab specifications
Tesla EPA documentation as reported by Electrek, InsideEVs, Car and Driver · Jun 2026
~293 mi range, 47.6–48 kWh pack, 5.5 mi/kWh, 3,113 lb curb, 219 hp front motor, 2 passengers, inductive charging only.
Inductive charging >90% efficiency; FCC UWB waiver
Tesla (We, Robot) and FCC DA-26-168 · Oct 2024 / Feb 20, 2026
Cybercab is designed without a plug. Tesla received an FCC waiver in February 2026 to operate UWB positioning on outdoor ground pads so vehicles can self-align for wireless charge.
Production status
Tesla investor communications; Giga Texas reporting · Feb–Jul 2026
First production Cybercab reported February 2026 at Giga Texas. Volume production targeted by end of 2026. Public-road validation vehicles observed in Austin and the Bay Area.
Pensacola Bay Area tourism
Visit Pensacola FY2025 · Oct 29, 2025
2.5 million visitors, $1.3 billion direct spending, 2.5 million room nights, $22 million tourism development tax. Visit Pensacola described early 2026 as a standout snowbird season.
Pensacola International Airport (PNS) traffic
Pensacola International Airport public statements · 2025
Record year north of 3 million passengers, ~58,000 passengers per week, 104% growth over ten years.
PNS ride-hail price context
Uber public airport rate cards · 2026
UberX average from PNS on the order of $64–$87 depending on destination mix. PNS to Gulf Shores (~40 mi) ~$73. This memorandum prices Cybercab at a 25–40% discount to local ride-hail, not at Tesla’s long-run $0.20–$0.30/mi consumer fare.
Florida driverless commercial operation
Fla. HB 311 (2019); HB 1289 (2021); HB 425 / Act 2023-197 · 2019–2026
Florida permits fully driverless personal, commercial, and on-demand AV networks statewide. Local governments cannot add AV-specific taxes. Airports may charge reasonable pickup fees. Waymo already operates in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami as of 2026.
SBA 7(a) program
U.S. Small Business Administration, 7(a) loans · FY2026
Up to $5 million. Eligible uses include real estate, equipment, and working capital. Guaranty 75% above $150,000. Maximum variable rate on $50,001–$250,000: base + 6.0%. DSCR of 1.25× is the common lender overlay; SBA small-loan floor cited at 1.10× as of March 2026.
Prime rate and Veterans Advantage
WSJ Prime; SBA 7(a) rate caps; Veterans Advantage fee policy · Aug 2026
WSJ Prime 6.75% (July/August 2026). This ask assumes Prime + 2.75% (9.50%) for a veteran-owned 10-year note, and stresses Prime + 6.0% (12.75%) in the bank case. Veteran-owned 7(a)/Express loans commonly receive upfront guaranty-fee relief on amounts up to $500,000.
Gulf Coast commercial electricity
Florida commercial tariff context (FPL / Gulf Power range) · 2026
$0.13/kWh used as a conservative delivered commercial rate. At 5.5 mi/kWh and 90% pad efficiency, energy is ~$0.026 per mile — a small fraction of Tesla’s $0.20/mi all-in operating claim.
This Confidential Information Memorandum is a proof-of-concept package prepared for authorized SBA 7(a) lenders evaluating Take the Wheel LLC. It is not audited financials, not a securities offering, and not an advertisement of Tesla, Inc. Tesla, Cybercab, Full Self-Driving, Robotaxi, and related marks are trademarks of Tesla, Inc. Figures attributed to Tesla are drawn from public remarks, EPA filings, and contemporaneous reporting cited in the Sources section. Projections are hypothetical. Actual delivery timing, Tesla network access, take rates, insurance, and utilization will differ. The borrower will update this package with executed Tesla fleet quotes, site contracts, and insurance binders before closing.
Take the Wheel LLC · Pensacola, Florida · Confidential · August 2026