Is Your Tesla Dealership Spreading FUD Around The Tax Credit?

[bonaire]

They have a Q2 number to hit. Pushing to August is not going to go over well with those handling your purchase.

 

[SageBrush]

That is exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

People post here on TMC that same error, and we are supposed to know everything Tesla.

It does not excuse Tesla, but salespeople are not the most knowledgeable creatures around, even if they are Tesla employees.

Trust, but verify.

 

[MS16]

Yes, and the point of having stores was to avoid the usual bad customer experience of dealerships where sales people pressure customers to sign and commit soon, because 'this deal won't last' and assorted lies... But it seems corporate is getting a taste of the 'time limited deal' pressure sales too, seeing how they handle the free unlimited supercharger on/off/on/off perk lately. So maybe this is the new normal where Tesla stores are moving towards behaviour previously more associated with dealership sales people.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

As Tesla's sales practices continue to slip, the advantage of a company owned store is diminished. If we're going to get this kind of stuff from a company owned store, I'd rather work with an independent dealer and not pay full MSRP.

 

[jordanhm]

Honestly I'm not buying it.
You don't have to understand tax law. You just have to understand that the tax credit is based on the cars sold in the US, while the VIN is global, which he should know. Those are pretty simple concepts that someione who was working there on his first day should understand if OP told him that and he should easily have been able to verify himself and then change the delivery date.

In addition you would also have to be ignorant of the fact, that this is for the manufacturer and not the car model, because otherwise with 40-50k Model X VINs Tesla would already have been above the 200k for some time.

The tax credit has been the same for a long time and at least leading up to the 200k cut off phase it is really simple to understand. Understanding Tesla's new Supercharging rules or constant changes even on custom ordered cars between confirmed orders and delivery is a lot more difficult to keep up.

For me it is rather obvious this is a sales guy trying to make a Q2 sale.

I agree this sales guy was trying trying to make a Q2 sale and creating the perception of the tax credit going away to close the deal sooner than later. I've escalated this to a Tesla exec as there are two things going on here: 1) Tesla need to make sure its sales team is doing ethical things and to be trained on how to properly answer this question. 2) Need to make sure I get an August delivery.

 

[jordanhm]

They have a Q2 number to hit. Pushing to August is not going to go over well with those handling your purchase.

Lying to customers is not the ethical way to hit your numbers.

 

[SageBrush]

I agree this sales guy was trying trying to make a Q2 sale

Maybe
Or maybe he was innocently in error and was trying to save you some money.

As as said earlier, there is a lot of misinformation around surrounding this tax credit question, including from people who should know better. The most recent I read was from a well known and published EV expert.

 

[jordanhm]

Maybe
Or maybe he was innocently in error and was trying to save you some money.

As as said earlier, there is a lot of misinformation around surrounding this tax credit question, including from people who should know better. The most recent I read was from a well known and published EV expert.

good opportunity for training of US store employees on this topic.

 

[bonaire]

In another thread, it was mentioned that sales associates now have a quota. This is new as of the last few quarters. Remember the days when they were there to advise and not make quota?

 

[bonaire]

good opportunity for training of US store employees on this topic.

They may have been trained "to push the tax credit issue" to make a sale. Nothing says they are not aware - it's easy for anyone to look up the true facts. However, for years, car salesmen from GM, Ford and others have mis-represented the tax credit as a "rebate".

 

[3Victoria]

@Bet TSLA, I know. I saw that tweet too. My calculations already include this trick. ....
Model 3 for Canada production is expected to start on 4 Dec 2017, .... The hardware in Canada cars is different meaning they would need those different parts in large numbers too quickly. The suppliers might struggle with that. ....

Interesting info, thanks. Do you have any documentation for the 4 Dec 2017 date? Also, what hardware differences are there for Canadian models? I had thought it was pretty trivial stuff like daytime running lights and metric gauges. Both are simply software changes.

 

[SageBrush]

Nothing says they are not aware

Nothing says they are, and we know misinformation is widespread. Take OP, for example.

Life is too short to presume everybody is out to get you.

 

[bonaire]

Nothing says they are, and we know misinformation is widespread. Take OP, for example.

Life is too short to presume everybody is out to get you.

If a person's job is sales - they are out to get you. This is how it works.

 

[jordanhm]

If a person's job is sales - they are out to get you. This is how it works.

Their title is Owner Advisor, so while they may have a sales function, they should be properly trained how the tax credit works and where Tesla stands on US deliveries. If this was Q2 2018 and Tesla hit 200K US Deliveries in Q1 2018, I could better understand OA wanting to let their prospects know about this and how the tax credit will work quarter by quarter until it runs out. The fact is, it is May 2017 and this is not an issue and shouldn't be used as a way to push sales at Tesla. I could see this happening at some Chevy Dealer selling Volts or at a Nissan Dealer selling Leaf's, but would think Tesla's Executives don't want to tarnish their luxury brand.

 

[kort677]

sadly this isn't really how the world is.
owner advisor is just another synonym for salesman

 

[Troy]

what hardware differences are there for Canadian models? I had thought it was pretty trivial stuff

Tesla doesn't think it is trivial. They think the differences are so great that service centers can't make USA cars Canada compatible. Even today, you can't import USA Model S/X to Canada.

See EXPLANATIONS section. [EIS] read paragraph #9 of the "EXPLANATIONS" section.

Note-1: Please contact the manufacturer prior to importation to determine the exact nature and cost of modifications required. Possible modifications may include: daytime running lamps configuration, electronic immobilization system [EIS], metric odometer and speedometer configuration.

Note-2: Tesla Motors has informed Transport Canada that Tesla service centers are currently not in a position to support the substantial modifications required to bring U.S. Model S and Model X vehicles into compliance with Canadian requirements. Contact the manufacturer for further details.
Source, page 17

Also, see this message.

Do you have any documentation for the 4 Dec 2017 date?

That's a date I use in the Model 3 Delivery Estimator project. See cells E3:i13 here. These are research-based estimates. I have used the following data pieces to come up with those dates:

• This data from Tesla.
• Data from shareholder letters. Here it says they will start low volume production in July 2017 and volume production in Sep 2017.
• Elon's tweets like this one about Right-hand drive countries.
• Model X data.

You might say it is all guesswork. Well, when I created the estimator in September 2016, it showed 75 kWh for the largest battery like it does now. 6 months after that, Elon tweeted about the 75 kWh here. The 75 kWh was not a wild guess out of thin air. It was based on lots of research and detailed calculations. Most of my estimates are.

 

[schonelucht]

Maybe
Or maybe he was innocently in error and was trying to save you some money.

As as said earlier, there is a lot of misinformation around surrounding this tax credit question, including from people who should know better. The most recent I read was from a well known and published EV expert.

If he was really that misinformed, then this is squarely on Tesla. The federal tax credit is an essential part of the financial decision to buy or not for a lot of a customers. It's not rocket science and can be explained to any intern in a few minutes. That others make mistakes is no excuse at all.

 

[SageBrush]

It's not rocket science and can be explained to any intern in a few minutes.

You obviously have a very modest opinion of Tesla owners in general, since so many of them are misinformed.

Here is the real deal though: Tesla publishes quarterly sales but does not break down sales by country.
So you tell me, know it all: how do you know when the US federal tax credit expires ?

The sales Rep knew the published sales data, and knew the threshold for beginning the tax credit phase-out.