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Its a Wrap

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Tesla launches its own car wrap service

Tesla has launched its own car wrap service through delivery centers starting with five cities in China. Could it be introduced in other markets?

Over the last few years, Tesla has reduced the number of color options on its vehicles in order to streamline production and facilitate repairs at service centers.

It resulted in many owners turning to wraps in order to get different colors and differentiate their vehicle from the increasingly larger Tesla fleet.

They had to rely on third-party suppliers and installers to wrap their cars.

But now Tesla is launching its own service through delivery centers in China.

The official Tesla customer service Weibo account announced it yesterday:

Here’s the post translated from Chinese:

Tesla is more and more common on the road, and it is getting easier to recognize the wrong car at the charging station. How to make your Tesla different and stand out?
Now the Tesla Delivery Center has launched the [Color Changed Car Wrap] product, which can make the vehicle cool! The first batch of online cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and other cities will be launched in mid-August! Many available colors, please contact your local delivery or service center!


It sounds like new Tesla buyers in China can order wraps for their cars directly through Tesla’s delivery centers, and existing owners can do it through service centers.

Tesla is starting with five large markets and more are to come in the coming weeks.


Electrek’s Take

This is an interesting development. I’m sure some people will say this is a literal Band-Aid to fix Tesla’s paint problems.

I am curious to see how much it costs and how long it takes. How long will it be under warranty?

When Elon said that Cybertruck owners will need to wrap their trucks in order to get different colors, I suggested that Tesla might actually offer the option itself.

While plenty of third-parties would likely jump on the opportunity, wraps aren’t cheap, and if Tesla was to get involved directly, they could probably lower the cost by standardizing the wraps.

This looks like a first step in that direction.

We’ll see if it expands outside of China.


Tesla launches its own car wrap service - Electrek
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The DMV is prob going to have a problem with this.
Why? The paint color will match the data.

And Police, you be pulled over cause the color doesn't match whats in DMV

People don't get pulled over for driving without license plates. You think the police are going to pull up details for every car they see and check if the color matches? Get real. They're too busy looking for civil rights to violate.
 
Why even bother wasting time and money to paint the car, only to wrap it. If somebody wants a specific color on the initial order, just coat the car in whatever primer / corrosion protection layer is normal and then wrap.

It's even easier to just do one color and never change the process at all. Make everything whatever color is cheapest for them to paint, and if you want something else, you pay the wrap fee.

It's an AWFUL idea, but that hasn't stopped them before.
 
If you get good at doing a "factory wrap", then just eliminate paint completely. Put down a base coat of primer to just make sure the metal is protected, and then have every color be a wrap.

For that matter, if your factory wrap equipment can print graphics in multiple colors on the wrap, then when you order the car, you can upload the graphics you want on it.

The whole thing could be a new innovation in how cars are built.

CyberTruck is supposed to be in just the stainless steel color I think, so if you want it colored you're going to have to wrap it anyway.

Furthermore, since many people want PPF to protect their paint, I'd assume many of them would just as soon have the wrap so they could have more color choices.
 
I'm paying $1,000 to get a blue car; I'm not going to pay more money to change the color. At least not until I get tired of blue.

However, if wraps had been available in the USA when I had ordered the car, I just may have got white and a wrap of my own color.
 
I'm paying $1,000 to get a blue car; I'm not going to pay more money to change the color. At least not until I get tired of blue.

However, if wraps had been available in the USA when I had ordered the car, I just may have got white and a wrap of my own color.

I think most wrap places would recommend you get black, if you intend to wrap it. Stands out less in the small joints and such like doorjams etc.
 
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Reactions: Reborn
Why even bother wasting time and money to paint the car, only to wrap it. If somebody wants a specific color on the initial order, just coat the car in whatever primer / corrosion protection layer is normal and then wrap.

Why bother painting the one color and then making people wrap? Maybe they should ask people what color they want and then paint it that color... so much easier.

lol
 
Why bother painting the one color and then making people wrap? Maybe they should ask people what color they want and then paint it that color... so much easier.

lol

For companies that are actually good at manufacturing, this would be the marginally sane approach (building to order is very inefficient but it can work). But Tesla is neither good at manufacturing, nor sane, and so here we find ourselves.
 
Very interesting. Seems like this is in preparation for Cybertruck. I'm not sure if it's a good idea for Tesla tbh. As an owner of a wrapped model 3, I can attest that vinyl wraps are not a long term solution. It's great for someone who just wants to change the look of their car for a few years. But if the owner does not take good care of his car then that wrap won't last long. I wonder what type of warranty Tesla will offer? Also, I'm sure pricing will be on the higher end of the scale compared to other shops. But if the end result is better then it may be worth it. I wonder if they will wrap the door jambs? Most shops charge a lot extra to do the door jambs since they are so time consuming.