Last CPO added 12/17 per ev-cpo

[Boourns]

I spoke with CPO adviser Brent yesterday. He attributed the dearth of CPO models online to the fact that they are assigning a lot of returned cars to the service loaner fleet. He said there should be an influx of new CPO cars in 2-3 weeks.

 

[3mp_kwh]

At first blush, I thought new Model 3 viewers were causing big CPO demand, but zero CPO’s means something internal. I don’t think there are signs wholesaling has increased. The “buffer” thesis works for a number of reasons:

• Not the mentioned Model 3 order holders becoming impatient, because it implies long-term storage
• I think Tesla pushes and pulls its CPO inventory, because they can.
• With CPO fully reflected, Tesla and its great warranties, pricing effectively becomes the market
• Depreciation isn’t a big cost, of un-marketed cars, for a few months anyway. And we know they don’t market everything they have (Chicago lots, etc).

I don’t think they've gone anywhere. I will speculate they need new car/inventory buyers to help meet targets. After bad Q1 units (~5600), faster Model X production will help, but you can also order one and get it within Q2. I’m thinking the quarterly rush is already on, for Q2. CPOs don’t boost manufactured numbers, or new-sales, and they don’t want to repeat what produced all the 90D’s we are seeing on Hank’s site. At some rate, even if they price-out many CPO buyers, there are those who will get a new car for lack of any CPO. If it looks like the new unit target will be hit, the spigot for CPO opens. I believe units trump profit, which would explain why potential CPO customers are being turned away (in addition to the possibility that the profitability of CPO is in question).

Other makers can’t do this, because they don’t control their own markets. There’s another BMW down the street. It can be taken to an independent mechanic. Are you going to buy a ‘12/’13 Model S, with 5-15k warranty miles left, from someone other than Tesla? It feeds a bigger question, to me, of when Tesla’s used out-of-warranty market matures? Since it doesn’t materially exist, the company has a lot of breathing room to make CPO wait, serve its sales targets, re-allocate its team’s resources, etc. EVs should be simple, but there aren’t enough TMC posts showing treatment for out of warranty drive-units, or $5k master control units, or a demonstrated ability to buy re-manufactured parts and install them instead of paying (~$150/hr?) in manufacturer labor. If I could go down the street for that CPO substitute, Tesla couldn’t as easily do what we’re witnessing. Like just about no other maker, I can’t.

 

[Skione65]

I don't think they made the data available on purpose and had no clue that anyone would create an ancillary site to re-publish and re-present the data. That took them completely by surprise (I know, the head of the CPO program called me to talk about it). They offered to bring me in as a consultant to help them incorporate the features of EV-CPO into their platform, but then later decided to 'use in-house resources' instead (but I think it was more of the 'Not Invented Here' syndrome at play).

I've also heard more recently that the current scenario is nearing an end.

@HankLloydRight,

What do you mean by "I've also heard recently that the current scenario is nearing an end"?

Ski

 

[HankLloydRight]

@HankLloydRight,
What do you mean by "I've also heard recently that the current scenario is nearing an end"?

That TM is revamping their Preowned/Inventory website to replicate most of the functionality of EV-CPO. Of course, I have no timeline for this, but have been told it's in the works.

 

[SmartElectric]

That TM is revamping their Preowned/Inventory website to replicate most of the functionality of EV-CPO. Of course, I have no timeline for this, but have been told it's in the works.

Somehow I doubt they will provide a history service that allows prospective buyers the information necessary to track prices over time and location as your EV CPO service does.

As a happy subscriber, I have found the information invaluable, and your application was directly responsible for me finding the Tesla sitting in my garage right now because I was refreshing the site every 5 minutes in the background, which provided the opportunity for me to snag the CPO S85 within minutes of it appearing online! If Tesla do provide such a service, I'll be surprised.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Thanks for your support!

You're right about tracking historical sales and probably things like price changes.

They told me before they first launched their Preowned site, they had three different versions developed with increasing searching/sorting/filtering features. They were all showed them all to Elon Musk, who choose the most basic version which is the version we now have (although slightly modified to add all areas). When I recently corresponded with them, here's what they said:

We’ve learned a lot in the year since we launched our Pre-Owned program. It’s been amazing to see how many people outside of Tesla have devoted time and effort to our program and assist others, including yourself. Thank you for that.

We are overhauling our Pre-Owned website in the near future, and we plan to include several new features that are currently not available.

So we'll just have to wait and see what that entails and how it affects EV-CPO.