I'm speaking both about Tesla Energy and Tesla Automotive. One thing you should consider is that the automotive industry is much more evolved than the PV+ESS industry. So while Tesla Energy is doing some less-than-stellar behaviors in this mostly emerging space, the stuff Tesla Auto is doing is also carefully constructed to be consumer-unfriendly (but of course with the guise it's actually new/better).
Naturally I do expect to get mega-downvoted by all the fanbois for this sentiment hah.
First let's talk about the lack of independently owned showrooms. This is a divisive topic, but my personal opinion is that Tesla is abusing the ever living hell out of the fact they don't have to franchise (except in Texas!) while every other major automaker has to conform with state franchise laws. When an automaker has independent showrooms, customers can go to the specific showroom of their choice that they believe provides the best service and experience. Customers can also form a relationship with the independent franchise for some concept of long-term loyalty. There is reputational risk if one franchise doesn't perform to the standards set by others, the competition necessitates that they all try to perform at a pretty high standard.
But Tesla showrooms are just... corporate channel arms. They are a sterile means to get hastily assembled inventory from the factory into the hands of a customer. Look at Tesla's incredibly difficult after-sales support, poor PD quality, dismissal of of the "no hassle return", and understaffed customer relations is proof that Tesla is abusing their direct-to-consumer approach today. If any other automaker treated their customers after the sale like Tesla does... they'd have hell to pay. But Tesla gets away with it because of Elon and the amazing tech of their vehicles.
Tesla experience can be completely trash or completely great but either way customers have no choices. And that is why long term it is bad for the customer. One customer can be quoted $16,000 to fix a dented battery, or get a car delivered with a flat tire. There is no market competitive drive for these customer facing arms to perform at a high level. Contrast that with a BMW of North America... if some dealership doesn't white-glove every customer, they could actually lose precious/valuable vehicle allocation. If an overworked Tesla rep does a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, nobody will give AF.
Next let's move to that magical flat pricing experience. While I know car buyers really like removing the sales/friction from a transaction, things aren't actually beneficial for the customer by Tesla having done this across most of their USA sales channel. Teslas trade at a hefty premium compared to other autos because their pricing is non-negotiable. To make the transaction affordable, Tesla relies on government subsidies and some other spiffs to make the equitation more attractive. But this margin manipulation goes straight into Tesla's pockets and lets Elon take trips to the moon.
If you asked the average car buyer what a hard-negotiation was worth in terms of $ in their pocket, most people would actually agree that saving $3,000 by having to go through a 3 hour negotiation is worth the few hours of pain. What people want in a perfect world is to get a $3,000 discount without the pain at all. But Tesla isn't offering this pain free low-price deal. Tesla is simply removing the negotiation from the equitation and asking the government to step in with rebates to close the gap.
For example, if you talk to car buyers living near Detroit, you'll learn lhat none of the auto dealers up there negotiate on pricing. This is because everyone up there knows someone in the biz, and typically they get access to the A-Plan, X-Plan, S-Plan, blah blah. And there are just amazing lease packages that are managed by the automaker's captive financing arms. These car sales still make the automaker money, make the dealership money. And I'm willing to go out on a limb and say people buying these cars had a great experience and got a good price on their vehicles. That is the experience people want; what they get with Tesla is a bastardized system that would have failed as a consumer-viable solution if not for government kickbacks incentives. Look at how many people gamed the "heavy truck"
tax BS on the Model X.
Of course Tesla's tech is second to none, and justifies Tesla bending the rules and getting away with it. The other automakers are decades behind in terms of catching up with what Tesla offers. There aren't many good, competitive choices at this time. And Tesla should benefit from the competitive advantage because that's what companies do when they have the lead. I don't mean only in terms of the tech in the car or the UI, Tesla's supply chain is light years ahead of everyone else since Tesla basically owns their entire car end to end instead of other automakers that source from ZF, Getrag, Bosch, JCI, Harman, Visteon, blah blah blah. Tesla should be commended for beating dozens of entrenched and well capitalized automakers at their own game. That is beyond impressive.
Bottom line, Tesla has the best tech, but this should not distract that their business practices are unfriendly to consumers.
