News from the Front...

[suwaneedad]

Visited the Atlanta (Decatur) SC this morning. The lot had over 100 Model 3s awaiting delivery (I stopped counting at 100, but there weren't too many more than that). None were AWD per an employee I spoke to. Another employee said the number of cars was down about 50 from where it stood when they got to work Monday morning. VINs observed ranged from 28xxx to 50xxx. Build dates observed were all June/July, although it's possible some of the lower VINs I saw were built earlier (not all cars I saw had the sticker visible). I was a little bit surprised to see any July builds already this far east, and roughly half of the cars with visible build dates were July (evidence of the production rate remaining high this month). During my 30 minutes in the showroom, I saw 3 deliveries occur, and another 5-6 buyers in process although the delivery people were clearly already running behind today, frustrating the new owners. My guess is there are ~6 deliveries per hour scheduled today.

So at first I was shocked at all the inventory sitting in the lot, but soon I was happy to see that the inventory is getting to owners fairly quickly. Cash conversion cycle is critical for Tesla these days, and there is a ton of room for improvement. I'm now thinking about applying for a part-time job just to help with deliveries on the weekends/peak days.

There were maybe two Model S and two Model X amid the 100+ Model 3s.

 

[Pied]

They can't take our money fast enough!

 

[psohl14]

Oh interesting, I'm in the Atlanta area, and Decatur is where my Performance Model 3 will be delivered whenever it's ready. Somewhat disappointing that no P/AWD cars have made it out here thus far, but at least it seems like a lot of cars are making their way out to the east coast.

 

[suwaneedad]

They can't take our money fast enough!

It sure looks like the current bottleneck is delivery, no longer batteries or assembly. Doesn't do much good to produce 5-7k cars/wk if there's no way to deliver them at that pace. Reminds me of the Seinfeld rental car episode ("what good is taking a reservation, if you can't hollllllld a reservation?").

Several months ago someone in the forum ran the math on # US delivery centers, and how many vehicles per hour would need to be delivered at the 5k/wk production rate, and the number didn't seem supportable. This was back when we were wondering aloud whether Tesla would just drop the cars off at owner homes (akin to Carvana) rather than trying to support the volume centrally at service centers. (Clearly they've opted for the latter.) That said, since that time Atlanta for example has increased its delivery center capacity by 50% (Alpharetta opened a few weeks ago.) Some more delivery employees and detailers at Decatur would certainly help remove the logjam there. This morning's observation that there were way more customers with delivery appointments than the staff was able to handle effectively, was painful to watch.

 

[Todd Burch]

I don't understand why Tesla doesn't do batch deliveries. They could hold a group delivery every hour or two at the service center. Customers can attend whichever they'd like. Most of the orientation would be done in a group setting, with a group question and answer session while the individual paperwork is handled. Would allow for a higher throughput and a more relaxed and informative delivery experience.

 

[oscarfish]

I don't understand why Tesla doesn't do batch deliveries. They could hold a group delivery every hour or two at the service center.

This is actually a really great idea. Think of the camaraderie it would build for meet-ups, etc.

I appreciated my walkthrough but my paperwork guy told my walkthrough guy that I knew more about the car than he did...and that may be true. Nevertheless, once I got delivery scheduled, everything was butter. It's just the past eight days of hilariously poor communication from my delivery advisor(s) that rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyway, mine is home tonight, and it's phenomenal. I think the stores are just drowning in product. I'd put hard money down that Fremont was building (and hoarding) units then really opened the floodgates on July 1 so everyone knew where the federal tax incentive stands.

My store wouldn't say how many M3s they're moving weekly but if the number was in the few hundred I would not be surprised at all.

 

[Park2670]

I would love to help with deliveries as a part time job. I have yet to find a part time delivery specialist anywhere though.

 

[m3tx]

I don't understand why Tesla doesn't do batch deliveries. They could hold a group delivery every hour or two at the service center. Customers can attend whichever they'd like. Most of the orientation would be done in a group setting, with a group question and answer session while the individual paperwork is handled. Would allow for a higher throughput and a more relaxed and informative delivery experience.

They do already, kinda. They were doing groups of 2 customers when I got my car delivered last week.

 

[outie]

I don't understand why Tesla doesn't do batch deliveries. They could hold a group delivery every hour or two at the service center. Customers can attend whichever they'd like. Most of the orientation would be done in a group setting, with a group question and answer session while the individual paperwork is handled. Would allow for a higher throughput and a more relaxed and informative delivery experience.

Not when 50% of the people in the group brought a magnifier glass with them.

 

[Dan Detweiler]

I had heard a while back from a Tesla employee at the Alpharetta gallery that they would be opening a delivery center in Alpharetta somewhere. Has anybody heard more about it? I can't imagine that with a metropolis the size of Atlanta Tesla would try to handle all the deliveries out of the Decatur center.

San

 

[suwaneedad]

I had heard a while back from a Tesla employee at the Alpharetta gallery that they would be opening a delivery center in Alpharetta somewhere. Has anybody heard more about it? I can't imagine that with a metropolis the size of Atlanta Tesla would try to handle all the deliveries out of the Decatur center.

San

It's open. Right next door to a BMW dealership. It's on the west side of 400 in an area that I'd refer to as Roswell frankly but I guess it must technically be Alpharetta.

 

[suwaneedad]

I don't understand why Tesla doesn't do batch deliveries. They could hold a group delivery every hour or two at the service center. Customers can attend whichever they'd like. Most of the orientation would be done in a group setting, with a group question and answer session while the individual paperwork is handled. Would allow for a higher throughput and a more relaxed and informative delivery experience.

I would not have wanted to be part of a batch delivery approach, personally. My delivery experience took maybe 15 minutes, five to sign a few pieces of paper (right then I decided I will never buy another car from a traditional car dealer for the rest of my life, and use this as a ready example when explaining to friends why I've made the switch to Tesla), and ten minutes of phone setup/orientation to the vehicle (this was late March, before orientation videos were released).

The only thing I had to figure out after I pulled out of the Tesla lot was how to change the regen setting since I wasn't used to the heavy regen yet and didn't want to be getting used to it on the drive home in a vehicle that wasn't yet familiar to me. (I've seen embraced full regen and adore it.)

 

[Dan Detweiler]

It's open. Right next door to a BMW dealership. It's on the west side of 400 in an area that I'd refer to as Roswell frankly but I guess it must technically be Alpharetta.

That is WAAAYYYY closer to me. Can I request that location for delivery?

Dan

 

[bdy0627]

It sure looks like the current bottleneck is delivery, no longer batteries or assembly. Doesn't do much good to produce 5-7k cars/wk if there's no way to deliver them at that pace. Reminds me of the Seinfeld rental car episode ("what good is taking a reservation, if you can't hollllllld a reservation?").

Several months ago someone in the forum ran the math on # US delivery centers, and how many vehicles per hour would need to be delivered at the 5k/wk production rate, and the number didn't seem supportable. This was back when we were wondering aloud whether Tesla would just drop the cars off at owner homes (akin to Carvana) rather than trying to support the volume centrally at service centers. (Clearly they've opted for the latter.) That said, since that time Atlanta for example has increased its delivery center capacity by 50% (Alpharetta opened a few weeks ago.) Some more delivery employees and detailers at Decatur would certainly help remove the logjam there. This morning's observation that there were way more customers with delivery appointments than the staff was able to handle effectively, was painful to watch.

According to the Tesla Service Center list, there are 76 U.S. service centers. Let's say they get to 6,000 model 3 plus 2,000 model S & X deliveries per week. 8,000 x 52 weeks is 416,000 deliveries per year. That almost certainly won't all be in the U.S., but let's just assume that it is. 416,000 deliveries to 76 Service Centers is 5,473 deliveries per Service Center per year. That would come to 15 per day. Obviously, this ignores holidays and such, but 15 per day is very doable. Once model 3 opens up to international deliveries, this will be even lower.

 

[suwaneedad]

Can I request that location for delivery?

Once you're in touch with your delivery person from Tesla (occurs just after learning your VIN) that is when they confirm date/time/location of delivery. Decatur is very happy to have less than 100% of the deliveries pressure on them now for Atlanta.

 

[suwaneedad]

Update: There are maybe 50 Model 3s in Decatur now, vs 100+ last Wednesday. Many have grease pencil delivery dates and times on the windshields so the detailers know when to pull them out of the lot (dirty due to nearby construction) and get them ready for their owners.

 

[danielfs1]

Update: There are maybe 50 Model 3s in Decatur now, vs 100+ last Wednesday. Many have grease pencil delivery dates and times on the windshields so the detailers know when to pull them out of the lot (dirty due to nearby construction) and get them ready for their owners.

One of those is mine. 39xxx. Delivery on Saturday.