Very nice, you’ll love it!
Yeah, I can see it.
Over here price cuts have brought the Model 3 LR into tax subsidies, which brings the price further down to 39k€ + VAT, which moves it into “expensive car” category, down from really expensive/luxury vehicle. At that price range it certainly has no competition range/performance wise with EVs and becomes competitive in general with PHEV of similar size/stylings.
I think this was always their strategy. Once the real competition hits, sacrafice some of their massive margine to strangle other automaker’s EV offerings in the crib. They have a decade+ advantage in R&D and their vehicles are the best in class in terms of range, which is the #1 factor for EVs (imo).
So if there are no Tesla dealers, where do I get my Tesla worked on? That seems to me one advantage the traditional dealers have. They will have some people trained to work on their own EVs.
If there are no Tesla dealers how did you get your car?
If you bought it 2nd hand and it breaks I guess you gotta ship it to the nearest dealer. If you buy another company’s EV, like a Subaru, and there’s no Subaru dealer nearby won’t you have the same problem? Do any small mechanics service EVs yet beyond stuff like tires and brakes?
I’m pretty sure that Hyundai doesn’t sell their EVs in states where they can’t service them. That’s why they weren’t an option for me in Florida.
I thought that was their model – no dealerships.
I should have just googled it. There are Tesla Service Centers. There’s one in St. Louis – only one, so I don’t know how quickly you can get a car serviced there but there is one at least.
EVs don’t need as much maintenance – mostly tires and brakes, wipers, any of the moving parts. My biggest concern would be with all the computerized stuff. If that needs to be adjusted I’d want someone who really knows what they are doing to work on it.
That stuff’s handled by Russian hackers.
They definitely have dealerships, they are just run by the company. They don’t sell through those dealership chains you see all over the country. There are Tesla stores all over the country.
At least in my neck of the woods, I think most people refer to “dealerships” as a middleman situation, which Tesla doesn’t do in all/most states (I know there have been legal actions in some states (brought by dealers!) challenging the model). As you noted, there are Tesla “stores”, though on the few occasions I’ve stopped by one, they seem to be more of a showroom/demo centers. If you want to buy a car, they direct you to the website (e.g., no store employee will actually “sell” you a Tesla).
If so, the challenge will be capacity. Can they make enough cars, without significant quality mishaps, to fulfill demand? Because if they get flooded with orders, and can’t keep up, the people at the back of the line are going to be poached by other car makers for sure. The group of buyers for whom it was Tesla or nothing is already served, so the growth area is among folks who generally won’t care which make of EV they get as long as it ticks all the boxes. And while range is a key factor, so is availability (not having to wait six or more months, that sort of thing).
They also license third party repair shops to get their cars serviced. Of course, if you need a replacement part, probably the official service center will be faster.
Can only speak for over here, but in September I got my car in 1.5 months since I ordered it (early August), while a friend has been quoted a 6+ month wait from a traditional car dealership. VW in particular has stupid long waiting times on their EVs.
I know the gv60 initially launched in 3 or 4 States, but they have added a few more.
Yeah, to get one in Austin I’d have to buy it from Carvana who would ship it to me. I’m going to wait.
Besides Tesla service centers, there is also Mobile Service where a technician will come to you for routine/small tasks.
We’ve taken ours to the Berkeley service center twice (I live in a different East Bay town) – one soon after delivery because of a door alignment issue and another to get the cameras/computers looked at. The first time, we got a loaner vehicle while they worked on it, but the second time, there were no loaners available so they gave us $100 per day in Uber ride credit. The way they setup the Uber credit, it doesn’t roll over and it can only be used for rides.
I’ve had the Tesla mobile service come to my house and they were great.
On the dealership piece, that whole model needs to go away. I can’t even test drive a Lucid in Washington because of industry protecting dealership rules.