Tesla plans to bring most collision repairs in-house, according to a series of tweets from Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Musk said “outside firms” take too long – weeks to months – to make repairs, which is driving Tesla owners and the company “crazy.”
Tesla is bringing most collision repairs in-house, as outside firms take weeks to months for repairs, driving Tesla owners (and us) crazy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2018
Musk said the company’s current collision repairs operations are completing jobs within 24 hours, but the goal is to deliver repaired cars back to customers within an hour.
Exciting to see some Tesla collision repair operations already completing within 24 hrs. Aiming for same day soon, then under an hour.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2018
Musk said that Tesla-specific shops will be more efficient in that they will deal only in Tesla parts and will more easily navigate insurance approval.
Outside repair shops are jack of all trades, which means supporting 1000’s of makes & models. Tesla collision repair specializes in three. Having all parts in stock & not waiting for insurance approval also make a world of difference.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2018
Tesla has been dealing with body shop woes for a while. And they’ve often blamed the body shop. You may remember a note from TMC member Jon McNeill, Tesla’s former President of Global Sales and Services, that addressed concerns and complaints over service delays in certified third-party repair shops.
“Even though we reduced part wait times, we continued to dig into the body shop complaints,” McNeill posted to TMC. “What we found was astounding – cars sat at body shops for weeks and sometimes months before the body shops took action and, more often than not, the body shops blaming Tesla for parts delays were the very shops that hadn’t even ordered parts or started the repair.”
But, Musk seemed to accept some blame for being slow to supply parts.
Yeah, that’s our problem. Service & parts supply in general will be the top Tesla priority after we get through the insane car delivery logistics of the next few weeks.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2018
Tesla currently operates nine Body Repair Centers in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Musk did not comment on plans to open new facilities for body repair.