Spare Parts Supply Chain Nightmare

[Matt1980]

Hi

My one year old Model S had an error message on 10th January, and was unable to receive a charge. Tesla collected the car and declared that it was a HV battery fault and that we would need a replacement. It is now the start of March and my car is still with Tesla. I have been told that in the U.K. the have five customer cars in the same situation, which is that they are all waiting on a battery to be shipped from the US. Tesla have paid for a hire car during this time, but it is starting to feel like an absolute joke that they are not able to locate the spare parts. Suspect that the have major supply chain issues with batteries, based on everything I have read about the model 3. Has anybody else experienced these ridiculous delays with spares? The lady in the dealership was trying to patiently explain to me that they “have to come from California”. Errrrr...... firstly if you want to run a car dealership then how about keeping some spares in stock? And secondly it doesn’t take that long to ship from California.... I should know I relocated from there last year!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Matt

 

[whitex]

What's a "hire car"? Are they paying for a car service to drive you around? If it's another Tesla car, can they just take the battery out of that one, stick it in your car until yours gets here? Elon claimed the battery swap can be done in 90 seconds, unless of course he was lying.

 

[bonaire]

Hi

My one year old Model S had an error message on 10th January, and was unable to receive a charge. Tesla collected the car and declared that it was a HV battery fault and that we would need a replacement. It is now the start of March and my car is still with Tesla. I have been told that in the U.K. the have five customer cars in the same situation, which is that they are all waiting on a battery to be shipped from the US. Tesla have paid for a hire car during this time, but it is starting to feel like an absolute joke that they are not able to locate the spare parts. Suspect that the have major supply chain issues with batteries, based on everything I have read about the model 3. Has anybody else experienced these ridiculous delays with spares? The lady in the dealership was trying to patiently explain to me that they “have to come from California”. Errrrr...... firstly if you want to run a car dealership then how about keeping some spares in stock? And secondly it doesn’t take that long to ship from California.... I should know I relocated from there last year!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Matt

Keeping spare batteries can be done at the assembly point in The Netherlands for some of the EU cars.

They actually bring cars there, add a few of the parts like wheels and whatnot and ship them out to avoid the VAT. Batteries should be kept there as well (should be but may not be). It seems logical. Unless they do keep them there and have run out. There are so many varieties, though. 60,70,75,85,100 and 85P and 100P types.

 

[Superendo]

Keeping spare batteries can be done at the assembly point in The Netherlands for some of the EU cars.

They actually bring cars there, add a few of the parts like wheels and whatnot and ship them out to avoid the VAT. Batteries should be kept there as well (should be but may not be). It seems logical. Unless they do keep them there and have run out. There are so many varieties, though. 60,70,75,85,100 and 85P and 100P types.

That should not BE an excuse.

Just 8 different(you forgot 90) spare parts. How hard is that?
Or just have 85and 100 and give a free upgrade for the inconvenience

 

[Matt1980]

What's a "hire car"? Are they paying for a car service to drive you around? If it's another Tesla car, can they just take the battery out of that one, stick it in your car until yours gets here? Elon claimed the battery swap can be done in 90 seconds, unless of course he was lying.

We have a brand new Audi A5 rental car that Tesla are paying for.

 

[JammyP]

Just interested...are they paying for the fuel too? With the amount of miles I do, if I had to pay my lease along with 2-2K miles per month worth of fuel I would want some sort of compensation...

 

[bonaire]

Just interested...are they paying for the fuel too? With the amount of miles I do, if I had to pay my lease along with 2-2K miles per month worth of fuel I would want some sort of compensation...

Once in the club, you get to find out what rules of the club are.

 

[Matt1980]

They haven’t offered to pay our fuel bills, but I have heard from a friend that if pushed they will. When we accepted the hire car I assumed it would be for a week or two at most!

 

[JammyP]

Odd they haven't given you a Tesla loaner. My 75D is currently in for some work and they gave me a 90D. They told me it could be a couple of weeks as they have a backlog. Tradeoff for milage depreciation vs the cost of a hire vehicle maybe? Or more hassle for you if the inventory car sells whilst you are using it? Side note - I notice the 90D I currently have is listed on the "New Inventory" and the milage will update each night on the website after me driving it for the day.

 

[Tiger]

It sounds like Tesla is revamping their battery production line for S and X causing the delay! Refresh is imminent.

 

[whitex]

It sounds like Tesla is revamping their battery production line for S and X causing the delay! Refresh is imminent.

If a major refresh is really coming, then I am glad I got my most recent order in before it happened. New Tesla designs often suffer from inadequate testing (falcon doors, new S mirrors at the end of 2017, etc), factory people learning how to assemble them properly (initial quality goes down during the learning period). Some features simply just don't work for months if not years (AP1, AP2, automatic headlights, automatic wipers, exit profile, ...). While things like door pockets, coat-hooks, lighted vanity mirror, or even surround view would be appreciated by my wife, I don't think she'd be willing to trade not being able to turn on the heated steering wheel or seats for months (like in today's Model 3) or not be able to turn it on via the phone app, etc. Lastly, Elon mentioned increasing profit margin as a goal in a recent investor call. This can only happen via price increases and/or production cost optimizations - the latter rarely ends up in using higher quality parts (e.g. 90 batteries seem to have higher reported degradation than 85's).

 

[TMobe]

That should not BE an excuse.

Just 8 different(you forgot 90) spare parts. How hard is that?
Or just have 85and 100 and give a free upgrade for the inconvenience

and forgot 40 lol

 

[phaduman]

[QUOTE="....not being able to turn on the heated steering wheel or seats for months (like in today's Model 3) or not be able to turn it on via the phone app, etc. Lastly, Elon mentioned increasing profit margin as a goal in a recent investor call. [/QUOTE]
@whitex , sorry slight deviation from OP's topic - does M3 premium package come with heated steering? I thought they only have driver and passenger seats heated, not even back row seats - unlike the premium heating option in MS/MX where steering and all seats are heated. It would be great for my wife to know that her M3 (when we order it) will have heated steering...

 

[whitex]

@whitex , sorry slight deviation from OP's topic - does M3 premium package come with heated steering? I thought they only have driver and passenger seats heated, not even back row seats - unlike the premium heating option in MS/MX where steering and all seats are heated. It would be great for my wife to know that her M3 (when we order it) will have heated steering...

Check Model 3 forum for latest news. Last I looked heated seats didn't work yet and people were speculating whether the hardware was already in place to enable it via software.

 

[NickFie]

Odd they haven't given you a Tesla loaner. My 75D is currently in for some work and they gave me a 90D. They told me it could be a couple of weeks as they have a backlog. Tradeoff for milage depreciation vs the cost of a hire vehicle maybe? Or more hassle for you if the inventory car sells whilst you are using it? Side note - I notice the 90D I currently have is listed on the "New Inventory" and the milage will update each night on the website after me driving it for the day.

I don’t think Tesla asks you to return the loaner early if it’s sold. Delivery for my wife’s inventory S100D was delayed a few weeks because it was in use as a loaner. Higher miles at delivery meant deeper discount. The car was flawless at Delivery.

 

[Jon49]

Hi

My one year old Model S had an error message on 10th January, and was unable to receive a charge. Tesla collected the car and declared that it was a HV battery fault and that we would need a replacement. It is now the start of March and my car is still with Tesla. I have been told that in the U.K. the have five customer cars in the same situation, which is that they are all waiting on a battery to be shipped from the US. Tesla have paid for a hire car during this time, but it is starting to feel like an absolute joke that they are not able to locate the spare parts. Suspect that the have major supply chain issues with batteries, based on everything I have read about the model 3. Has anybody else experienced these ridiculous delays with spares? The lady in the dealership was trying to patiently explain to me that they “have to come from California”. Errrrr...... firstly if you want to run a car dealership then how about keeping some spares in stock? And secondly it doesn’t take that long to ship from California.... I should know I relocated from there last year!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Matt

Well it looks as though these issues are getting worse.

My Model S was caught in flood water back in May this year - granted there are a lot of components to replace, but nearly four months later they are still not able to give me an ETA for the parts. Apparently some of them need to be made from scratch which is bizarre for a car less than a year old.

It's a bit of a concern that I've bought a car that appears to be unmaintainable now - and this is only going to get worse over time.