Effect of store closings on SC

[Barklikeadog]

With all of the news and craziness this week, I think one of the major items flying under the radar is the effect of store closings on SolarCity.
What do you guys see happening here? Did you go solar after seeing it in a store, or just online?

 

[miimura]

With all of the news and craziness this week, I think one of the major items flying under the radar is the effect of store closings on SolarCity.
What do you guys see happening here? Did you go solar after seeing it in a store, or just online?

This came up in this week's Electrek podcast. I think Tesla knows how many leads were generated in the stores and they considered this. I think most owners know that Tesla offers these energy products, so they will continue to get calls and web form submissions for inquiries. The few high traffic gallery locations will still expose non-owners to these products. I think the Powerwalls pretty much sell themselves to the extent that Tesla can produce them. Building a pipeline of leads for solar installation is another story and Tesla will continue to struggle with optimizing the sales and installation logistics processes.

 

[azred]

It was just a Musk family bailout anyway

 

[bob_p]

Tesla Energy sales will likely rely more on phone support, coupled with the site visit.

We looked into purchasing panels and Powerwalls over the last few weeks. The nearest store is a 30 minute drive, and instead of making the drive, just called Tesla's phone sales line - and then exchanged several e-mails before the site visit was scheduled.

Tesla tried doing onsite sales at Home Depot, and didn't get much traffic. Wouldn't be surprised if the store experience was similar.

If Tesla isn't spending $ on the stores any more - wouldn't be surprised for them to make some investments in their online presence, such as integrating chat or teleconferencing with their website, providing closer to an "in person" sales experience, without requiring the trip to the store.

The bigger impact of the lost stores will be on test drives. While we are strong Tesla supporters, we took a test drive before purchasing all 3 of our Tesla vehicles - and don't believe the 7 day/1000 mile return policy will eliminate the need for test drives.

 

[Need]

I didn't even know there are "stores" for solar. The only place I see them are the people who came to my house every week or a stand at Costco/Best Buy/Home Depot. I found my Solar company from my neighbors and online reviews.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

When we got started with the solar process, we did a teleconference and spent an hour online with our solar rep who was located in Las Vegas. That got the ball rolling and then they sent an employee out for a site survey. We had several follow-up calls with our solar rep before installation. She was always able to answer our questions and was very responsive. She really listened to our requests. We got a couple of other quotes from other companies. They both came out to the house and gave their spiel but didn't listen to what we wanted. They kept trying to get us to lease instead of buy, told us it didn't matter how many or what kind of panels we got, showed us proposed layouts that weren't symmetric and looked horrible and they actually both would've cost more than Tesla! They reminded us of used car salesmen. Tesla listened to our needs and requests and gave us exactly what we wanted.

We are already want to add more solar but need to wait until September as our power company limits the amount of solar we can install. We will definitely be calling Tesla again.

 

[bob_p]

Note that the current us tax credit is 30% and will be lower next year. If you wait until September, it may push your installation into next year, and increase the effective price.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Note that the current us tax credit is 30% and will be lower next year. If you wait until September, it may push your installation into next year, and increase the effective price.

Yes. We are trying to get a head start before September, confirm size of an allowed system addition in September and hopefully install before the end of the year!

 

[bob_p]

We're still debating if we'll install panels & Powerwalls. With electricity at $.11/KWh, it's harder to pull the trigger...

 

[Maximapolak]

We're still debating if we'll install panels & Powerwalls. With electricity at $.11/KWh, it's harder to pull the trigger...

I went with both and my kW price is 11¢. I thought this was a better route for the cloudy days, possible power outages, etc. almost everything in my house runs on electricity but the heat and water heater. It was almost a no brainer.

 

[bob_p]

I went with both and my kW price is 11¢. I thought this was a better route for the cloudy days, possible power outages, etc. almost everything in my house runs on electricity but the heat and water heater. It was almost a no brainer.

Have you estimated how long it will take for you to break even? What type of power plan are you on (a Free Nights or Buy Back plan?)?

While we're interested in generating our own electricity and being able to provide power during an emergency (hurricane), the accountant in the family isn't interested in a 15-20 year break even on the investment.

 

[The Rookie]

Solar City is effcetively no more, Buffalo is shedding staff faster than a tree sheds leaves in a hurricane. Penalty payments to NY state beckon (2020 I think), as above it was a Musk family bail out, Musk was a major shareholder and CEO at SCY, his cousin the Rives were also major shareholders and the biggest bond holder that would suffer if SCY went down was Space X who had over $300M in bonds and the biggest shareholder and CEO there was Musk again. He needed to bail his family, his other company and his reputation. Vertical integration was an excuse. Oh and of course the solar shingles big launch just before the vote was a sham, they weren’t solar shingles at all, it was a big fraud to get the Tesla board (2 other board members had a lot of shares in SCY) and shareholders to buy into the madcap scheme.

 

[Babaron]

I did an ROI for my 15.12kw system in Sarasota. Paying 12c/kWh now. The result was 7-8 yrs without power walls. We use lots of electricity.

Getting powerwals soon for backup only.

 

[Bigtanuki]

With respect to the online presence, I agree 100% that Tesla could improve their online service and sales. Currently, their phone support really is pretty poor for a tech company with the exception that they don't offshore their support so you usually get someone that speaks english well and is usually very technically competent on the product in question. The problems I have encountered have been long wait times and failures to meet promises of returning phone calls. Services for all of their products seem badly understaffed and disorganized. I should note that during my 2 years with a Model S and 2 Powerwall 2 units, I have seen substantial improvements, but I still don't think the level of service is where it should be a company that aspires to be top tier.

II believe that Tesla is missing a bet by not leveraging their base of existing customers for Tesla vehicles and power products, as a shadow sales force. I know that I would go out of my way to help educate interested parties about the benefits and issues with Tesla vehicles or power products without any outside incentive.
If you really wanted to enhance that "shadow" sales team, Tesla might consider making additional resources available to those folks. That might be service center tours, upscale factory tours, or special test drive events sponsored by local Tesla clubs.

Times are changing and Tesla is in the driver's seat of a new culture for car and home power shopping. I know that the closure of the stores will cause many people grief but the death of brick and mortar cannot be ignored and it will eventually make auto dealerships a rare exception.

Tesla Energy sales will likely rely more on phone support, coupled with the site visit.

We looked into purchasing panels and Powerwalls over the last few weeks. The nearest store is a 30 minute drive, and instead of making the drive, just called Tesla's phone sales line - and then exchanged several e-mails before the site visit was scheduled.

Tesla tried doing onsite sales at Home Depot, and didn't get much traffic. Wouldn't be surprised if the store experience was similar.

If Tesla isn't spending $ on the stores any more - wouldn't be surprised for them to make some investments in their online presence, such as integrating chat or teleconferencing with their website, providing closer to an "in person" sales experience, without requiring the trip to the store.

The bigger impact of the lost stores will be on test drives. While we are strong Tesla supporters, we took a test drive before purchasing all 3 of our Tesla vehicles - and don't believe the 7 day/1000 mile return policy will eliminate the need for test drives.

 

[Shygar]

Yea I agree that I don't think it will be a huge thing yet at this point. Demand is so high for powerwalls anyways.

The only area I'm really not sure on are test drives. They really do need to figure that out for the car business. Granted I bought my Model 3 online without a test drive, but I'm not sure the majority of people would take that "risk" with a car. I think it's a great idea to have Tesla organize drives with a few of their own cars and have owners come and help talk about it. Like a Tesla cars and coffee event.

It is clearly in their interest to sell as many cars as they can produce, so they must be confident it will only improve as time goes on. And if it doesn't, they can always start adding more stores again.

 

[miimura]

They can give test drives without staffing a showroom all the time. Sign up on a form on the web site to join a test drive event on a weekend or by appointment where they bring the car to you.

 

[Shygar]

I think that may be true for someone who wants a Tesla, but for someone who still isn't really bought into it (still a ton of people out there), they typically shop around on a weekend and aren't necessarily planning ahead to make sure there's an event that weekend to do test drives. They just want to go around to each dealer and see what the offer is.

Personally this is the only thing I'm worried about. I think it will be fine in the long run, but for the masses we need an easy way for them to have test drives, in my opinion.