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Tesla Will Close Most of Its Stores, Only Sell Cars Online
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a call with reporters Thursday that the company will only sell its vehicles online. As a result, the electric carmaker will close most of its stores over the "next few months." The Verge reports: Tesla will keep some of its retail locations open, which the company described as "a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers." The decision to shift away from brick-and-mortar retail is necessary if the company is to remain financially sustainable, Tesla said. The company's finances have stabilized somewhat in recent months, but Tesla still operates on very tight margins. Tesla said in a blog post: "You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn't needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free."
The company announced the move at the same time it said it will finally begin to sell its long-promised $35,000 Model 3.
The company announced the move at the same time it said it will finally begin to sell its long-promised $35,000 Model 3.
It's literally the same as the previous post, but minus most of the information... and both were published by the same editor. What gives?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
nt?
Ummmm.
Do they need to spoon feed you?
Hooray for Elon!
Go on.. tell us how shitty Southern California Edison is for not telling us the history of its namesake every chance it gets. Or the Bell companies, for that matter.
Sometime's a name is just a name.
No need to consider a Tesla. If I can't feel how it drives, how the seat feels, feedback from steering, wind and road noise, and everything else which can make or break such a purchase, I'll cross this off my list.
For those that don't mind this, more power, but some of us like to know what we're getting before we put down cash.
This is a mistake. A car is not like most other purchases, and while Teslas aren't cheap, Tesla isn't so far removed from traditional mass-market sales as to be able to take a page from luxury-performance makes like Ferrari and sell cars to buyers that haven't driven the particular model in question yet.
Sure, there are some people that would be willing to buy a car untested, but I don't think that's most buyers, and I don't care how good Tesla's return policy is, it's a huge hassle to buy something incredibly expensive and to then return it, especially when financing is involved. It's not zero-risk.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"Stuff that matters" Or is it "throw shit up and see what sticks" these days?
Musk announces he'll sell the Model 3's at a loss because demand has collapsed and there are over 10,000 of them sitting in inventory. And this "good news" is meant to cover for the disastrous news that they're closing almost all the stores and firing the sales staff. Oh, and Solar City is done now too since those stores were its only hope.
Today's "great" news all but assures bankruptcy in the next 6 months.
BREAKING NEWS: Massive corporations - even (especially) the ones run by celebrities - are cynically manipulative, especially with regards to marketing and branding.
Over-complicated, failure prone vehicle.
When this one fails, it's going to be bad. No repair, no parts, no support. Poor build quality.
Yeah. Buy a car that you can't see. Just buy it online.
....to further reduce costs, Telsa will sell cars only in kit, to be assemled by the user.
To avoid point of presence in states to scam them in the tax space and get favorable home field for all the lawsuits.
We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn't needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free."
I think the more alarming part is no show rooms, no test drives. Tesla must be hoping to hell that people are so willing to buy their cars without being able to looking at or driving them beforehand and will just drop the cash. If they do then I guess Tesla will do pretty well from it but investors could perceive this as desperation.
I agree with all the posts that this is a mistake. There are so many questions you have with such a major purchase and they can only be answered with a test drive. Do the seats hurt my hips? Can I see out of the rear corner? How easy is it to load and unload the trunk? Also, Tesla tightly controls the repair market and things still go wrong on electric cars and they still need service centers. I feel they actually need to add more locations with all they cars they have out on the road. Yes the cars don't need oil changes, but you can still hit a pothole and bend a wheel and damage a control arm. Your A/C fan motor can start to make noises. The window channel can become damaged and your window won't go down and up. There are 300,000 people in the metropolitan area I live in and the nearest Tesla location for service is 1 hour away. They need to add locations, not subtract and they need to hire and train more people for service work.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I agree, they should switch from powering their cars with DC to AC. Lets honor Tesla by using the power system he championed. If any car wants to run off DC, they should call themselves Edison.
I'm shocked people aren't catching on to what's happening here. Tesla is aggressively positioned in the market. Competitors are trying to ramp up their own EVs with mixed success, and they're doing it slowly. If they get up to full production the traditional manufacturers could muscle Tesla out of the market.
So what does Musk do? He pushes the envelope to dump cars at a desirable price to SATURATE THE MARKET. He's sucking down market share... pulling the air out of the room. EVs still have drawbacks, the larger market isn't ready for them and probably wont be till they start seeing lots of chargers in their parking deck at work. All those other companies are going to have to fight over a dwindling share of early adopters. If Tesla didnt do this theres a real risk Kia or some other cut-rate brand could saturate that market first, and Tesla would permanently be a luxury brand.
Tesla on the defensive? About to die? Desperate? Sure doesnt look like that to me. Seems like the kind of power move designed to establish long-term dominance. Autos aren't a high margin business, and Tesla is making it damned hard to churn out enough of any given competing model to make a profit.
I mentioned this in a previous post but this is likely a 7 day test drive and not a buy and return in the sense that the vehicle won't be titled to you until after the seven day period is up.
There are 300,000 people in the metropolitan area I live in and the nearest Tesla location for service is 1 hour away. They need to add locations, not subtract and they need to hire and train more people for service work.
This news is not about service centers (although you can view and test drive there). It's solely about the standalone showrooms such as the ones in major malls (in the USA).
Tesla has said it's planning to open lots more service centers, BTW. Progress there is slow; but they are definitely not closing any service center.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
I'm thinking this is in a big part a reaction to the massive stones they've put into Teslas way, trying to force them into a traditional retailer model instead of direct sales. After a while you ask yourself if the hassle is really worth it.
For the moment anyway the order queues are full, so not a big deal. But I would be surprised if not at least one person inside Tesla is thinking about a new approach that doesn't have the issues the old one had. I quite like the "showroom" idea. Maybe if you can't buy a car there, it will get Tesla out of the conflict with the car retailers?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org