Musk Tags Along for Model 3 Home Delivery

Tesla delivery day is an exciting event in itself, but imagine if Elon Musk showed up to hand over the car. A new Model 3 owner had that experience over the weekend.

Musk re-tweeted the owner Devin Scott, who shared photos of the delivery.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1023779158030077952

Tesla is attempting to solve for a backlog of cars ready for delivery as production ramps up. One method is to transport the cars direct from the factory to the customer’s home.

Home deliveries aren’t new for Tesla, but the automaker is delivering direct from the factory for the first time.

 

[AWDtsla]

Maybe he should have stopped in to offer more lettuce to the team of gerbils working their contract services.

Whatever it takes.

 

[omarsultan]

The last statement in the article is incorrect. My S was shipped directly from the factory to my driveway. That was five years ago this month.

 

[ℬête Noire]

The last statement in the article is incorrect. My S was shipped directly from the factory to my driveway. That was five years ago this month.

Did they delivery it using a multi-vehicle car carrier?

 

[devsters]

That's me next to Elon! lol

 

[Electroman]

Not sure if this will scale beyond greater Bay area.

Can't imagine 500 trucks pulling out of the factory every day. Unless they have a closed carrier that can carry around 6 to 10 cars and send it to a zip code and drop off in a sequence.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Not sure if this will scale beyond greater Bay area.

Can't imagine 500 trucks pulling out of the factory every day. Unless they have a closed carrier that can carry around 6 to 10 cars and send it to a zip code and drop off in a sequence.

Probably but if it takes out of the current delivery logistics system a bunch of cars destined for NorCal and SoCal as far South as LA out of the current delivery logistics system, it strikes me as indirectly good news for the rest of the country.

 

[omarsultan]

Did they delivery it using a multi-vehicle car carrier?

Nope...no Elon though, didn't know that was an option...

 

[ℬête Noire]

Nope...no Elon though, didn't know that was an option...

View attachment 321716

Yours? That's an uncovered trailer (although the big shield will protect it from most road debris damage), the one in Marina Del Rey was covered.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Lots of Tesla have been delivered by individual truck. Sometimes your car is even driven to your home with a second support vehicle along to take the driver back.

Sometimes a Ranger would also pick up and deliver a serviced vehicle to your home or business.

They are just doing some out of the box thinking to get all those cars delivered as best as possible.

My local Lexus dealer has been know to deliver a vehicle to the owners home. Sometimes make a big deal out of it with a big Red bow on the roof if it is a present to a Spouse.

Individual situations will determine what is the best solution.

 

[Dan Detweiler]

In the long run I think the most efficient delivery method would be mass deliveries with car "how to" videos as required previous viewing and all money having changed hands ahead of time.

Dan

 

[SO16]

Really? It's not more cost effective or eco friendly than shipping the car around multiple times and leaving it parked potentially for days before pickup? Then you have a dirty or damaged car that needs detailing or repair? Think about the interest alone, nevermind the cash flow problems.

Not to mention the wrap, unwrap, clean, possibly clean again before delivery. (With the old method.)

 

[SO16]

The last statement in the article is incorrect. My S was shipped directly from the factory to my driveway. That was five years ago this month.

My S was delivered to me in Feb 2017. But it was first at a service center and then delivered by a 3rd party semi.

 

[omarsultan]

Yours? That's an uncovered trailer (although the big shield will protect it from most road debris damage), the one in Marina Del Rey was covered.

Yup--its was only a couple of hours from Fremont and apparel the shield did its job--car showed up looking great.

 

[hughbie]

I took delivery of my RWD Pearl White at home on Friday night. Delivered by third party carrier who used an enclosed car carrier that could hold three cars. Had three cars in the delivery plan, but one wasn't ready. Two cars to the California north coast.

 

[ohmman]

mod note: threads merged.

 

[Sg911]

In the long run I think the most efficient delivery method would be mass deliveries with car "how to" videos as required previous viewing and all money having changed hands ahead of time.

Dan

I had posted a week or so ago that my local Tesla SC was looking to do “group” deliveries going from 11 a day to 11 per hour!

 

[beachbum77]

Guys, you are all missing the point of why there are delivery hangups right now. Look at the calendar. This is the time of year when massive shipments of the 2019's are rolling to dealerships all over the country. The majority of these 10-car transporter drivers/companies are under long-term contracts. I have no doubt Tesla being as small as they are cannot find enough rail cars and trucks to get their cars moved. This problem will last for 3-4 months. In the meantime, Tesla is scrambling for alternatives IMHO and the timing could not be worse for them.

Trucks say delivering cars from the Mira Loma and Chino rail yards to So. Cal. dealers are not available to divert anywhere else. They are all rushing back empty. Finding trucks willing to drive cross-country right now is nearly impossible. There are not enough pickup drivers with single car enclosed trailers to deliver even 1,000 cars per week right now. They are all busy delivering the 2019 travel trailers and fifth wheels coming out of the Indiana, Utah and Ohio RV plants who also can never find enough drivers.

When Tesla was dealing with small numbers they should not have had any problems. But now that they are ramping up activity 3x and 4x it is a whole new ball game. Being the only car factory in Northern California could become a huge problem for them going forward.

That big lot that was spotted by the Burbank Airport may be a staging yard for cars heading to empty rail cars in Mira Loma and Chino heading back east. Same with the Lathrop lot for rail cars heading back from Northern CA. But most of those rail cars are taking cars coming in from Asia and arriving at the ports of Long Beach and Oakland.

 

[beachbum77]

Nope...no Elon though, didn't know that was an option...

View attachment 321716

Most service centers have one truck and trailer like this for pickup and delivery of cars being serviced or moving cars between locations. Nice to hear they make double use of them as new car delivery vehicles.