How will Tesla make deliveries?

[int32_t]

The closest Service Center to me is a 3 hour drive. That's 6 hours of driving, 3 of which (the return trip) would be in 2 cars. Since the one-way trip is about 280 miles it would require a charging along the way. That sounds pretty daunting for a newbie.

Same issue, different country. In fact, the closest Service Centre will be 3 hours away after it's built some time this year ... :smile:

@johan... I don't know I'm using Tapatalk so I can't tell you why or how... Maybe through the app? Is it annoying? It looks normal in the app. Don't have a pc to check now.

No, it's not annoying. It's just ~4x larger by area than most other user images are. Red Sage's red eye would look scary if it was that huge! :biggrin:

 

[Model 3]

But increasing them to handle "that", as well as to handle prepping and delivering every single new vehicle is an order of magnitude larger.

Absolutely not. The may have to have the increased capacity say about 6 month earlier, but not a "magnitude larger". And by having the increase occur about 6 month earlier they may have the possibility to take away any warranty repairs on new cars, not wait to increase the staff until they expect the first round of normal service after 1 year/20k km.

Yes, it will be some benefits with "regional "giga-delivery" centers", and some drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is that it will be the more expensive option given that they anyway will have to increase the capacity of the service centers (only a bit later).

 

[S3XY]

Same issue, different country. In fact, the closest Service Centre will be 3 hours away after it's built some time this year ... :smile:

The funny thing is there's closer ones to me but they're in your country. There's a few near Toronto (which is less than 2 hours away). I wonder if it would be possible to take delivery in Canada. I would think there would be import issues.

 

[CHG-ON]

From what I have read, they are delivering the cars out on a somewhat one by one basis. They appear to be bulk shipping to a point, but not to the extent that a "traditional" mfr is. It may be a scale issue due to having very few stores. I can't see how that is cost effective for them. I'm not sure where you see the contradiction and hope that I have not have not done that.

You seem to contradict yourself. Yes, individual deliveries to homes was not scaleable or cost effective, so they have already switched to bulk deliveries to dealerships (oh excuse me, service centers). Where is the problem? I'm not sure why you say they are doing it one by one, since cars arrive at the service centers a truckload at a time.

 

[CHG-ON]

Mine was delivered 9-30-14. Though I do expect they were pressed to make quarterly numbers, which may be why they brought it to my house. I'm only 45 mi from the factory and had hoped to pick it up there. I'm not exactly sure when they stopped the service.

Over the last 15 months, I have seen the service drop off significantly. No more free pickups. No more fast service turnarounds. I think that they have come to understand that their original model is simply not sustainable when considering the realities of building and serving a car. I do think that, coming from the tech world, they assumed it would be as inexpensive as fixing a laptop, computer, phone. Clearly not the same ballpark. It is so more more complicated to build, deliver and service a car than our gadgets.

I think the early guys totally lucked out with amazingly personal, "do whatever it takes" service to make it work. As they grow, that pretty much has to change for a somewhat mass market car. If not, then then cost will have to rise substantially. I would hope that they stratify the service levels for those of us who bought the top-spec products. But I fear that they won't.

I was under the impression that deliveries to someone's driveway had ended sometime in mid 2013, except for those who are either: 1) in extremely remote areas, hundreds of miles from a Service Center; or 2) in States that do not allow Tesla Motors to 'sell' cars, like Texas. Neither of those is what I consider to be Tesla Motors primary sales and distribution method. They are just means to get the Product to dedicated Customers.

I believe that Tesla Motors prefers to continue selling direct through their website, and processing the final Delivery at their Service Center or Tesla Store. Some of their largest locations combine both on the same site. Those are often locations that were previously Lexus or Acura dealerships. So, yes, there is plenty of room. I'm just saying that at places of that sort, car carriers make the final drop-off at the site, no matter the manufacturer. There is no need, even with the Model ≡, to have 'Acres and Acres of Cars!' sitting on a lot, waiting for someone to come buy them. Better to have regional Tesla Stores/Service Centers that process Delivery to Customers.

The problem is that too many States won't allow that to happen due to their Franchise laws governing the sale of new cars. I hope that there is legal action at the Federal level during Q1 2016 to remove those roadblocks well ahead of the release of Model ≡. That way, Tesla Motors can prove once and for all that they do not need 'independent franchised dealerships' to distribute their cars at all. Tesla needs to know where they stand, so they can move forward with their plans appropriately.

 

[Shopaholic]

May be they can give a contract to UPS / Fedex and they will deliver to home on their fleet of auto carriers if you are more than say 50 miles from a Tesla store!

 

[Drucifer]

You used to have to buy a book at a book store. Then came Amazon. Somehow, there is a way to distribute 10,000 books to 10,000 addresses that works as well or better than sending 10,000 to a distributor that then sends 10-100 to individual bookstores who have to pay high rent to store them in a retail location until a customer decides (hopefully) that they want a copy.

In 4 years, your new Tesla will drive itself from the factory to your driveway and "self-deliver via autopilot 4.0"

 

[S3XY]

You used to have to buy a book at a book store. Then came Amazon. Somehow, there is a way to distribute 10,000 books to 10,000 addresses that works as well or better than sending 10,000 to a distributor that then sends 10-100 to individual bookstores who have to pay high rent to store them in a retail location until a customer decides (hopefully) that they want a copy.

In 4 years, your new Tesla will drive itself from the factory to your driveway and "self-deliver via autopilot 4.0"

I thought you were going to say that an Amazon drone was going to drop your car in your driveway.

 

[gregincal]

From what I have read, they are delivering the cars out on a somewhat one by one basis. They appear to be bulk shipping to a point, but not to the extent that a "traditional" mfr is. It may be a scale issue due to having very few stores. I can't see how that is cost effective for them. I'm not sure where you see the contradiction and hope that I have not have not done that.

The only reason cars should ever be delivered one by one to a service center is if the service center only has one car to deliver. It's a scale issue based on the number of cars they are selling, not on the number of stores and the Model 3 will solve that problem. The main scale problems I can see is any prepping that needs to happen on site, storage of cars waiting to be delivered and personnel to present the cars to the customers. The other issue of having more service centers closer to people is a general ownership issue, not just a delivery issue.

 

[int32_t]

The funny thing is there's closer ones to me but they're in your country. There's a few near Toronto (which is less than 2 hours away). I wonder if it would be possible to take delivery in Canada. I would think there would be import issues.

Hadn't thought of that. I've heard of Canadians planning to go to American service centres for service when they're closer than a Canadian one, but I don't know if any have actually done it though. If there's no money involved during the pick-up (similar to a warranty repair), there is no good reason for there to be import issues. Good reasons aren't always necessary, though ...

I'm curious to see how the Model 3 delivery thing goes. I'm sure this isn't an insurmountable problem, but there almost certainly will be growing pains.

 

[aronth5]

You used to have to buy a book at a book store. Then came Amazon. Somehow, there is a way to distribute 10,000 books to 10,000 addresses that works as well or better than sending 10,000 to a distributor that then sends 10-100 to individual bookstores who have to pay high rent to store them in a retail location until a customer decides (hopefully) that they want a copy.

In 4 years, your new Tesla will drive itself from the factory to your driveway and "self-deliver via autopilot 4.0"

I think you meant to say "in 4 years, your used" Tesla will drive itself....."because after a 3k mile trip across country it would no longer be a new car. Fun idea to think about though.

 

[Red Sage]

I think the early guys totally lucked out with amazingly personal, "do whatever it takes" service to make it work. As they grow, that pretty much has to change for a somewhat mass market car. If not, then then cost will have to rise substantially. I would hope that they stratify the service levels for those of us who bought the top-spec products. But I fear that they won't.

Most owners I've come across have considered the experience of buying, owning, and servicing a Tesla Motors product to be vastly superior to their prior high water mark, with Lexus products, before 1995 or so. Typically, the BMW 3-Series is the perennial best selling Premium vehicle in the US. But in mid-2015 BMW stopped including 4-Series sales as part of their 3-Series sales totals. The result is that the Lexus RX (100,610) was number one last year, and the 3-Series was number two (94,527). Each of those cars vastly outsell their respective Flagship stablemates, LS and 7-Series. Though Lexus may have slipped a bit in the past twenty years, they are still very highly regarded. If Tesla Motors can at least match Lexus in Customer Satisfaction, and hopefully surpass them by a wide margin, while building sales for Model ≡, everything should be fine.

 

[neroden]

The service centers would have to be 5X to 10X their current size to receive and prep the volume of cars that will be coming in 2018 and beyond.

There's one *enormous* one in New Jersey which is...

Either that, or there would need to be regional "giga-delivery centers", built for the sole purpose of storage, prep, and delivery of hundreds of cars per week.

Which is this.

Tesla needs massively more service centers, no doubt about that. Just for service. Deliveries are a smaller problem; it's not that hard to buy a giant parking lot.

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I believe Tesla simply cannot afford to triple the current service centers over the next four years.

They pretty much have to, in order to sell to the whole US market. Not optional; people have to be able to service their cars without 6 hour drives. They'd better start raising capital. Issue stock if they have to.

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The closest Service Center to me is a 3 hour drive. That's 6 hours of driving, 3 of which (the return trip) would be in 2 cars. Since the one-way trip is about 280 miles it would require a charging along the way. That sounds pretty daunting for a newbie.

Another Upstate New Yorker. Tesla needs a service center up here PRONTO. It's a very large market to write off and apparently we're quite vocal.

 

[Twiglett]

I'm not sure Tesla need a humongous network of service centers. Compare them more to the likes of MB or BMW where they severely limit the locations of dealerships.
In Austin there must be dozens of GM dealers, but a single BMW dealer. If you live 150 miles away, then thats how far you drive to get your 5-series hybrid.
It doesn't sound that different for Tesla service centers - except that they don't need to hold stock or used cars to sell.
Every car at a service center belongs to somebody.

 

[gregincal]

I'm not sure Tesla need a humongous network of service centers. Compare them more to the likes of MB or BMW where they severely limit the locations of dealerships.
In Austin there must be dozens of GM dealers, but a single BMW dealer. If you live 150 miles away, then thats how far you drive to get your 5-series hybrid.
It doesn't sound that different for Tesla service centers - except that they don't need to hold stock or used cars to sell.
Every car at a service center belongs to somebody.

Sure, but even so BMW has more than 300 dealerships in the US and Tesla has less than 70 service centers.

 

[Twiglett]

Sure, but even so BMW has more than 300 dealerships in the US and Tesla has less than 70 service centers.

the numbers are probably about right when you balance against the number of cars delivered.
It will be nearly two years before they deliver any Model 3 and at least another year or two for them to ramp up to full speed.
Who knows how many service centers there will be by then

 

[gregincal]

the numbers are probably about right when you balance against the number of cars delivered.
It will be nearly two years before they deliver any Model 3 and at least another year or two for them to ramp up to full speed.
Who knows how many service centers there will be by then

Nobody's saying they need these centers tomorrow. This whole thread is about what they will need 4 years from now.

 

[Red Sage]

I believe that what Tesla Motors needs to do within the next few months is file suit against places like the Great State of Michigan that currently don't allow them to establish Service Centers, thereby inconveniencing their current and future Customers for no just cause.

 

[gregincal]

I believe that what Tesla Motors needs to do within the next few months is file suit against places like the Great State of Michigan that currently don't allow them to establish Service Centers, thereby inconveniencing their current and future Customers for no just cause.

It's galleries that are prohibited, not service centers. Tesla is going to be opening a service center in Detroit soon.

 

[Red Sage]

The Detroit Service Center was due to open 'soon' for the past 18 months. When the Governor of the Great State of Michigan signed into law the revisions to the rules governing how 'independent franchised dealerships' could, and could not, be controlled by automobile manufacturers, part of the language specifically forbade automobile manufacturers from running Service Centers as well.