Musk Says Tesla Shooting for Collision Repairs Within an Hour

Tesla plans to bring most collision repairs in-house, according to a series of tweets from Chief Executive Elon Musk.

Musk said “outside firms” take too long – weeks to months – to make repairs, which is driving Tesla owners and the company “crazy.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/1041421552300916736

Musk said the company’s current collision repairs operations are completing jobs within 24 hours, but the goal is to deliver repaired cars back to customers within an hour.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1041421799618052097

Musk said that Tesla-specific shops will be more efficient in that they will deal only in Tesla parts and will more easily navigate insurance approval.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1041425397659795456

Tesla has been dealing with body shop woes for a while. And they’ve often blamed the body shop. You may remember a note from TMC member Jon McNeill, Tesla’s former President of Global Sales and Services, that addressed concerns and complaints over service delays in certified third-party repair shops.

“Even though we reduced part wait times, we continued to dig into the body shop complaints,” McNeill posted to TMC. “What we found was astounding – cars sat at body shops for weeks and sometimes months before the body shops took action and, more often than not, the body shops blaming Tesla for parts delays were the very shops that hadn’t even ordered parts or started the repair.”

But, Musk seemed to accept some blame for being slow to supply parts.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1041436083894943744

Tesla currently operates nine Body Repair Centers in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Musk did not comment on plans to open new facilities for body repair.

 

[Need]

My Model 3 windshield was replaced by one of the pilot Tesla in house body shop last week. It's Tesla Pomona and it is not on the map yet. They came to my house to pick up the model 3, left me a loaner MS and brought the car back the next day. I was afraid that I would be out of the car for a week or more.

 

[Electroman]

Donn: you can hit the disagree button all you want. But you (and your short buddies and the tabloid media) are exactly what I had depicted.

Dishonest to the core.

 

[xav-]

One hour? Let’s start with 1 week.

 

[Barklikeadog]

Yes. Have you never had an accident before? They start right away. And a supplement can be written up for damage that is discovered further along in the process.

This is not a body shop or an insurance issue. It is a Tesla issue, plain and simple.

I don’t know why they are even attempting to deflect blame unless they plan to revolutionize the process by cutting insurance co’s and body shops out of the mix and making it a free service. That last bit is sarcasm.

Do we need to open up the right-to-repair discussion again?
bwah who am I to argue, I'm sure the service centers have the extra space and manpower to take care of this

 

[legend502]

What on earth is he talking about? The delays with repairs are not because repair shops are sitting on the cars.

It's because no one can get parts from Tesla. Maybe look into the parts supply chain instead? Do they have an adult in charge over there yet?

Right.... minor collision, and I waited 3 months for backordered liftgate and rear bumper (basically all summer) .. the shops hands were tied on the eta... after escalations with Tesla parts who changed eta dates 5-6 times throughout the process it finally arrived. Once in my body shops hands things were completed perfectly in 2weeks including PPF and Opticoat. Not fair to point the finger at the authorized body shops...

 

[David99]

body shops don't like to have cars sitting in their lot and taking up space for months. They are not slow, it's Tesla not delivering parts! I know from my own experience and fro many other owners who had the same experience. Fix the part shortage and the body shops can work efficiently.

 

[lorenzotint]

It's crystal clear were the problem has been for the past few years regarding replacement part delivery time frames, All Premium car owners like options when making important decisions regarding all aspects of the quality of any service for their cars. I'm happy Musk has addressed the repair issue since adding options to current ones will appeal to some of the new entry level buyers who may not have a Carriage house full of cars to enjoy while their Tesla is down.

 

[BoerumHill]

What on earth is he talking about? The delays with repairs are not because repair shops are sitting on the cars.

It's because no one can get parts from Tesla. Maybe look into the parts supply chain instead? Do they have an adult in charge over there yet?

Occam's razor

 

[alcibiades]

It's almost as if he is trying to deflect the blame for delays from lack of parts availability to the shops themselves.

Hopefully no shop owner who has been waiting for a part to fix a customer's car tells Musk to stick anything up his butt. Musk is trying to help! For free! With his revolutionary idea to bring it all in house and turnaround down to one hour. Disruption!

 

[BerTX]

I can see where repairs COULD be done that quickly. They have only a few car models in a few (and fewer all the time) colors. They could keep a stock of all the body parts, pre-painted in all the colors. Just a simple swap out of the parts would be quick.

Not saying it WILL be done -- just that it could...

 

[KerryOH]

Tesla plans to bring most collision repairs in-house, according to a series of tweets from Chief Executive Elon Musk. Musk said “outside firms” take too long – weeks to months – to make repairs, which is driving Tesla owners and the company “crazy.” Tesla is bringing most collision repairs in-house, as outside firms take weeks...
[WPURI="https://teslamotorsclub.com/blog/2018/09/17/musk-says-tesla-shooting-for-collision-repairs-within-an-hour/"]READ FULL ARTICLE[/WPURI]

It took 4 months for Tesla to deliver an MX quarter panel to my Tesla approved body shop. I was lucky in that the car was driveable. If Tesla can repair in an hour I would be VERY surprised.

 

[Need]

I can see where repairs COULD be done that quickly. They have only a few car models in a few (and fewer all the time) colors. They could keep a stock of all the body parts, pre-painted in all the colors. Just a simple swap out of the parts would be quick.

Not saying it WILL be done -- just that it could...

When you can stock pile your own parts, I can see how Tesla in house body shops could beat 3rd party body shops repair speed by days/weeks or even months when shipping the parts take the longest time. it is kind of funny that Tesla is taking all the 3rd party revenue related to cars. No gas stations, no dealerships, no 3rd party repairs and maintenance, and no 3rd party body shops. They should start an in-house Tesla only auto insurance!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

When you can stock pile your own parts, I can see how Tesla in house body shops could beat 3rd party body shops repair speed by days/weeks or even months when shipping the parts take the longest time. it is kind of funny that Tesla is taking all the 3rd party revenue related to cars. No gas stations, no dealerships, no 3rd party repairs and maintenance, and no 3rd party body shops. They should start an in-house Tesla only auto insurance!

Tesla has experimented with Tesla insurance in China, I believe.

 

[BerTX]

When you can stock pile your own parts, I can see how Tesla in house body shops could beat 3rd party body shops repair speed by days/weeks or even months when shipping the parts take the longest time. it is kind of funny that Tesla is taking all the 3rd party revenue related to cars. No gas stations, no dealerships, no 3rd party repairs and maintenance, and no 3rd party body shops. They should start an in-house Tesla only auto insurance!

They looked at doing insurance. I suspect they found it extremely complicated due to each state having its own regulations, essentially needing to have a separate insurance company for each state.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

When you can stock pile your own parts, I can see how Tesla in house body shops could beat 3rd party body shops repair speed by days/weeks or even months when shipping the parts take the longest time. it is kind of funny that Tesla is taking all the 3rd party revenue related to cars. No gas stations, no dealerships, no 3rd party repairs and maintenance, and no 3rd party body shops. They should start an in-house Tesla only auto insurance!

Tesla has experimented with Tesla insurance in China, I believe.

They did some kind of deal with Liberty Mutual, but I think they'll be scrapping it because Liberty just used their "official" position to offer ridiculously high rates.

Tough for Tesla to do their own insurance, given a tight cash position and the overall infrastructure required.
I think Tesla will simply focus on lowering insurance costs. That feeds back into profit from vehicle sales.
But they don't want to carry a lot of part inventory, which just exacerbates the cash problems. Focus right now is on sales and production margin.

1) Get to positive cash flow
2) Use positive cash flow

 

[Barklikeadog]

When you can stock pile your own parts, I can see how Tesla in house body shops could beat 3rd party body shops repair speed by days/weeks or even months when shipping the parts take the longest time. it is kind of funny that Tesla is taking all the 3rd party revenue related to cars. No gas stations, no dealerships, no 3rd party repairs and maintenance, and no 3rd party body shops. They should start an in-house Tesla only auto insurance!

I'm not sure how a guy running a local body shop is some sort of scourge on society that needs to be eliminated.

 

[u00mem9]

Why is Elon's phone in the playpen again?!

 

[rallykeeper]

I'm starting to think that Elon has a larger number of yes-men surrounding him than Trump.

Tesla service center capacity to address current problems before adding to their workload. If he doesn't understand that, someone in the chain is definitely hiding some pretty bad failures.

 

[Darren Donovan]

Will the in-house body shops have the same QC as the main factory? I hope not, because of they do, then the service centers will be even more inundated, LoL.

 

[N5329K]

Tesla plans to bring most collision repairs in-house, according to a series of tweets from Chief Executive Elon Musk. Musk said “outside firms” take too long – weeks to months – to make repairs, which is driving Tesla owners and the company “crazy.” Tesla is bringing most collision repairs in-house, as outside firms take weeks...

I ran this through my Elon Distortion Field Clarifier (EDFC) and it reads like this now:

"Because no one at Tesla has the cojones to tell Elon Musk where the problems really reside, the company hopes to bring most collision repairs in-house, according to a series of tweets from Chief Executive Elon Musk. Musk said “outside firms” take too long – weeks to months – to make repairs, which is driving Tesla owners and the company “crazy.” Tesla is hoping to bring most collision repairs in-house, as outside firms take weeks."

Now it makes more sense.
Robin