Blog Tesla is Building Car Carriers to Keep Up With Model 3 Deliveries

Tesla is in a sprint to deliver as many cars as possible ahead of the end of the third quarter. Chief Executive Elon Musk has called it “delivery logistics hell.”

In fact, Tesla is delivering so many cars that it’s having trouble finding car carriers. So, the company has started manufacturing their own trailers. Musk shared that tidbit in a tweet today.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1044294753041313792

Tesla has struggled with production bottlenecks since the Model 3 sedan was introduced, but is now reportedly churning out around 4,000 of those cars every week. The ramp in production is now creating a bottleneck in delivery.

TMC members and Tesla watchers have observed large lots packed with Model 3s, as well as trucks pulling full loads of Model 3s en route to new owners. Tesla is aiming to produce around 50,000 Model 3s in the third quarter.

Musk did not provide more details about the car carriers built by Tesla, but it’s interesting to see the company work out a solution when it’s up against a tough challenge. Musk has also tried to remove some pressure from Tesla’s delivery team by inviting existing Tesla owners to help “educate” new owners taking delivery.

Has anyone spotted a Tesla-built car carrier?

 

[jelloslug]

Uh, no....it doesn't... it means Teslas logistical incompetence is causing them to constantly cancel delivery dates because they're unable to get the car and the buyer in the same place at the same time.

Which means they're not selling as many as they can make.

Evidence of this are the things like the "mass sale" events they did recently where they had cars they didn't have buyers for and just hoped people would show up to buy them.

See also the recent offers of free supercharging if you took an "inventory" (ie unsold) car.

See also the mass text they sent out desperate to match buyers with unsold cars before end of quarter.


You can have all the demand in the world- but if you can't deliver the car to the buyer that doesn't help.




If they don't have better transport logistics they'll continue to fail to get cars where they need to be in a timely fashion.
If they don't have more, or larger, physical locations then it will be physically impossible for them to deliver the number of cars they are physically manufacturing.

you can tell because that's literally what is happening right now in many locations.

I'm not sure how you "get better" at parking 100 cars in a lot that only holds 10. Can you explain how that works?

By getting faster at delivering cars. You are kidding yourself if you think that what is happening right now is the pinnacle of what Tesla can do.

 

[jelloslug]

yes- and car carrier companies have car carriers available.

According to the heads of 2 associations that would know.

So when Tesla says there's a "shortage" they really mean "We personally are short of them due to failure to bother lining any up in advance for a huge production surge we TOLD EVERYONE WAS COMING but apparently didn't believe it ourselves."

Are the available at the Fremont plant? Are they licensed to haul to the distribution points? Do they actually have the drivers available to do the routes? Just having a truck and driver available is no use if they are in Nebraska.

 

[mattjs33]

By getting faster at delivering cars. You are kidding yourself if you think that what is happening right now is the pinnacle of what Tesla can do.

You're kidding yourself if you think that sustained sales at this level (which they are expecting), will not continue this problem indefinitely.

There's no plan to change the infrastructure. More trucks won't help. More people in the same buildings won't help. Get your head out of the sand and look at this with a realistic eye.

 

[jelloslug]

You're kidding yourself if you think that sustained sales at this level (which they are expecting), will not continue this problem indefinitely.

There's no plan to change the infrastructure. More trucks won't help. More people in the same buildings won't help. Get your head out of the sand and look at this with a realistic eye.

So you don't think there is any way that Tesla cannot streamline their current operation and you say I have my head in the sand...

 

[mattjs33]

So you don't think there is any way that Tesla cannot streamline their current operation and you say I have my head in the sand...

Oh they can, for certain. All they have to do is build a lot more delivery centers. If they started today, best-case scenario is six months before any of those would be operational.

But since no one is talking about any plans to do so, this problem will continue for the foreseeable future, or get worse. There is no magic bullet.

 

[Knightshade]

Right, you can't park 100 cars in lot that holds 10, therefore Tesla must be selling car to someone, else all the lots will fill.

They are filling.

They're backing up becuase they're physically unable to transport and deliver them in a timely fashion to customers.

They've admitting this is happening and is a problem needing changes and a real solution

So I'm baffled you and the other guy keep insisting they'll just magically 'get better' and everything is fine.

Even tesla says you're wrong.

So while a specific buyer is not getting their car, in many cases someone else did get that car.

Yup- leaving a pissed off customer who didn't get one.

And in many other cases nobody gets a car because it's stuck in a regional depot and they lack the capacity to get it to an actual delivery center at all. Which is bad for everyone including Tesla.

They can only be fixed with more delivery capacity

By getting faster at delivering cars. You are kidding yourself if you think that what is happening right now is the pinnacle of what Tesla can do.

See above.

"deliver faster" doesn't help if the cars you want to deliver are not physically there

Some locations can't "deliver faster" because they don't have the parking space to hold more cars than they're delivering now.

That can't ever get better without more parking space.

Some locations can't "deliver faster" because even if they have the space, enough ordered cars aren't being transported to them to deliver.

that can't ever get better without more transportation.

Tesla is a great company.

They aren't magic.

They know what the problem is- unlike you two they've openly admitted these problems.

They just seem to be terrible at anticipating or fixing them.

Are the available at the Fremont plant?

They are as long as you reserved them in advance.

Which Tesla failed to do because it apparently never occurred to them that if they build 5000 cars a week they might want the ability to transport 5000 cars a week.

Are they licensed to haul to the distribution points?

...yes? I mean that's literally their job.

Do they actually have the drivers available to do the routes? Just having a truck and driver available is no use if they are in Nebraska.

Again yes- the link provided previously has the heads of two associations of such drivers and trucks saying there's no shortage and all and they have no idea WTF Tesla is talking about unless they mean 'There's a shortage of trucks we actually hired because we suck at planning for things"

 

[jelloslug]

Oh they can, for certain. All they have to do is build a lot more delivery centers. If they started today, best-case scenario is six months before any of those would be operational.

But since no one is talking about any plans to do so, this problem will continue for the foreseeable future, or get worse. There is no magic bullet.

Build them where? Half the states won’t even allow them to build them at all and another portion severely limit what they can build.

 

[mattjs33]

Build them where? Half the states won’t even allow them to build them at all and another portion severely limit what they can build.

Not my problem. Not any customer's problem. They chose to go to market this way.

 

[Knightshade]

Build them where? Half the states won’t even allow them to build them at all

Tesla already has locations in more than half of all US states.

Even in states they're not legally allowed to "sell" cars. In such states, Texas for example, they just route the "sales" stuff through California and once the car is paid for they deliver it to Texas.

There's nothing, at all, stopping them from building such locations in all 50 states.

So the cause of your objection is imaginary.

(and ignores the majority of states they already have locations in, but those locations are insufficient to handle a 10x increase in volume of cars being sold)

 

[jelloslug]

Not my problem. Not any customer's problem. They chose to go to market this way.

And for the most part, it's working.

 

[jelloslug]

Tesla already has locations in more than half of all US states.

Even in states they're not legally allowed to "sell" cars. In such states, Texas for example, they just route the "sales" stuff through California and once the car is paid for they deliver it to Texas.

There's nothing, at all, stopping them from building such locations in all 50 states.

So the cause of your objection is imaginary.

(and ignores the majority of states they already have locations in, but those locations are insufficient to handle a 10x increase in volume of cars being sold)

Yea, your oversimplified view of what is really going on is flat out wrong. Take my state for example (South Carolina); Tesla is not even allowed to operate a service center, let alone a sales center. In North Carolina, they are only allowed to sell from a single Sales Center and they just barely have a second location that was built and then the state changed the rules after the fact. I can see why Tesla does not want to invest money into physical locations where they may have to close up shop on the whims of whatever politician gets the best kickback. In your example of Texas, cars have to be paid for in full before they will even bring them into the state. None of these problems can be fixed by just spending more money on stores. Like most of the FUD out there, cherry picking examples only leave you missing the bigger picture.

 

[scaesare]

It's anyone's guess what the real size of the market will be by then. Especially if all anyone has heard is how difficult it is to get a Tesla delivered.

Under-promise, over-deliver. That's the best way.

Interestingly, it appears that significant chunk of folks are going to go home and tell their friends that while they were at the delivery center there were HUNDREDS of people there getting their cars delivered... numbers like they've never seen before at a dealership. And what's more, other adoring owners were willing to hang out and show them all the ropes of their new ride!

You may be assuming that the small percentage of folks with issues are representative of the 10's of thousands of cars being delivered in the last few months. That's often a bad assumption just because the 1 person with a bad experience is more likely to complain somewhere...

 

[jelloslug]

Interestingly, it appears that significant chunk of folks are going to go home and tell their friends that while they were at the delivery center there were HUNDREDS of people there getting their cars delivered... numbers like they've never seen before at a dealership. And what's more, other adoring owners were willing to hang out and show them all the ropes of their new ride!

You may be assuming that the small percentage of folks with issues are representative of the 10's of thousands of cars being delivered in the last few months. That's often a bad assumption just because the 1 person with a bad experience is more likely to complain somewhere...

When we picked up out Model 3 at the beginning of September, there were about 30 other people getting their Teslas (S, X, & 3 all at the same time) and an hour later, another group showed up. While there are some screw up happening, the vast majority of people are not having problems at all.

 

[Knightshade]

Yea, your oversimplified view of what is really going on is flat out wrong.

You keep saying that despite every bit of actual evidence proving you wrong.

Take my state for example (South Carolina); Tesla is not even allowed to operate a service center, let alone a sales center. In North Carolina, they are only allowed to sell from a single Sales Center and they just barely have a second location that was built and then the state changed the rules after the fact.

Funny story.

I'm in North Carolina.

So I'm well aware.

NC is, in fact, a perfect example confirming what I am telling you

The Raleigh location can legally sell cars.

But they have no room to actually park any significant number of them.

Hence why there's a massive delivery backlog here.

If they'd simply obtain a parking lot they could fix it.

They knew they had a tiny lot 6 months ago. Hell they knew they had a tiny lot 3 years ago before the Model 3 was even announced.

They did literately nothing to fix that known problem in all those years.

It remains a problem today and they still have no solution for it.


Thanks for picking a perfect example I am personally familiar with to prove what I was telling you is factually true




Quick correction BTW- the second location is in Charlotte... they're allowed to do everything there except take payments.

Unlike Raleigh they actually obtained a site with a decent sized parking lot.

In fact that's where the huge number of Raleigh overflow cars there was no room for in Raleigh ended up.

Didn't much help people in the eastern part of the state though unless they wanted 3+ hour drives to go get their cars...

And since Raleigh could only hold one truck worth of cars at a time they would very very very slowly trickle into Raleigh from Charlotte for pickups.... and once Charlotte backed up with too many cars they sat in Alabama at the regional hub. Cars sitting, not being delivered, because Tesla is unable to get them to customers is bad for Tesla (and the customers)

The only fix to that in Raleigh is more space in Raleigh.

Which they can legally, easily, do by simply buying/leasing/renting more space.

But they haven't. Despite years of notice this would be a problem for them.

And it's hardly the only state these exact type of issues are happening in.

I can see why Tesla does not want to invest money into physical locations where they may have to close up shop on the whims of whatever politician gets the best kickback.

Can you cite any state where that happened, or are we back to ImaginationLand?

Again, there's NOTHING restricting them from galleries in ANY state.

The sales restrictions only matter for things like where the payment has to physically go.

It's a complete non issue for this discussion of vehicle logistics.

In your example of Texas, cars have to be paid for in full before they will even bring them into the state. None of these problems can be fixed by just spending more money on stores.

No, but the problem in NC could be. In fact can only be fixed that way.

The Texas problem you cite is again, not actually a problem in this discussion. You just send the payment to California. THAT part works fine.

That has nothing to do with fixing the problems with physical delivery of the car... which Tesla would need to spend money to accomplish.

Like most of the FUD out there

Again- this isn't FUD. It's facts.

Unlike your posts that seem to keep making up nonsense easily debunked.

leave you missing the bigger picture.

That would be you.

Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the very problems Tesla themselves admit are a huge issue right now.

we’ve gone from production hell to delivery logistics hell

you- "Everything is fine- ignore the dumpster fire behind the curtain!"

 

[scaesare]

When we picked up out Model 3 at the beginning of September, there were about 30 other people getting their Teslas (S, X, & 3 all at the same time) and an hour later, another group showed up. While there are some screw up happening, the vast majority of people are not having problems at all.

Cool... appreciate the first-hand report.

And while it's not good to stick our head in the sand and pretend there are NO problems, the reality is that 94.72% of the general folks ordering aren't going to religiously comb the forums like we do, and be aware of the 1 out of 100 delivery issues.

I have two buddies that bought Tesla's recently.. one 3 and one S. Neither of them had any inkling of the stuff discussed on these boards.

The S went off without a hitch. The 3 got shipped with the wrong color paint... the DS informed him before hand, and expedited a replacement. While he was disappointed he had to wait an extra week, he actually was favorably impressed with the speed he got the replacement after waiting 18 months since his deposit.

 

[jelloslug]

You keep saying that despite every bit of actual evidence proving you wrong.




Funny story.

I'm in North Carolina.

So I'm well aware.

NC is, in fact, a perfect example confirming what I am telling you

The Raleigh location can legally sell cars.

But they have no room to actually park any significant number of them.

Hence why there's a massive delivery backlog here.

If they'd simply obtain a parking lot they could fix it.

They knew they had a tiny lot 6 months ago. Hell they knew they had a tiny lot 3 years ago before the Model 3 was even announced.

They did literately nothing to fix that known problem in all those years.

It remains a problem today and they still have no solution for it.


Thanks for picking a perfect example I am personally familiar with to prove what I was telling you is factually true




Quick correction BTW- the second location is in Charlotte... they're allowed to do everything there except take payments.

Unlike Raleigh they actually obtained a site with a decent sized parking lot.

In fact that's where the huge number of Raleigh overflow cars there was no room for in Raleigh ended up.

Didn't much help people in the eastern part of the state though unless they wanted 3+ hour drives to go get their cars...

And since Raleigh could only hold one truck worth of cars at a time they would very very very slowly trickle into Raleigh from Charlotte for pickups.... and once Charlotte backed up with too many cars they sat in Alabama at the regional hub. Cars sitting, not being delivered, because Tesla is unable to get them to customers is bad for Tesla (and the customers)

The only fix to that in Raleigh is more space in Raleigh.

Which they can legally, easily, do by simply buying/leasing/renting more space.

But they haven't. Despite years of notice this would be a problem for them.

And it's hardly the only state these exact type of issues are happening in.





Can you cite any state where that happened, or are we back to ImaginationLand?

Again, there's NOTHING restricting them from galleries in ANY state.

The sales restrictions only matter for things like where the payment has to physically go.

It's a complete non issue for this discussion of vehicle logistics.




No, but the problem in NC could be. In fact can only be fixed that way.

The Texas problem you cite is again, not actually a problem in this discussion. You just send the payment to California. THAT part works fine.

That has nothing to do with fixing the problems with physical delivery of the car... which Tesla would need to spend money to accomplish.






Again- this isn't FUD. It's facts.

Unlike your posts that seem to keep making up nonsense easily debunked.




That would be you.

Sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the very problems Tesla themselves admit are a huge issue right now.



you- "Everything is fine- ignore the dumpster fire behind the curtain!"

It happened right in Charlotte. When that store was built, they could do everything out of that store. I know that because that's were I picked up my Model S a few years ago. Later on, the Hendrick auto group managed to get their selling license revoked. As for the Raleigh store, for years they had adequate parking available to them but just recently, they lost the use of the lot. Citing gallery locations is stupid, there is no point in putting a gallery in a location where all they can to is show the car, Tesla has no problem with demand. Even a Tesla built gallery is not allowed in South Carolina (and many other states) anyway. If you think the issue with Texas is "just fine" as the people that would like to see their car before they send the final payment. That's not even possible as Tesla does not disclose where the car is actually at.

 

[jelloslug]

Cool... appreciate the first-hand report.

And while it's not good to stick our head in the sand and pretend there are NO problems, the reality is that 94.72% of the general folks ordering aren't going to religiously comb the forums like we do, and be aware of the 1 out of 100 delivery issues.

I have two buddies that bought Tesla's recently.. one 3 and one S. Neither of them had any inkling of the stuff discussed on these boards.

The S went off without a hitch. The 3 got shipped with the wrong color paint... the DS informed him before hand, and expedited a replacement. While he was disappointed he had to wait an extra week, he actually was favorably impressed with the speed he got the replacement after waiting 18 months since his deposit.

Our first Model 3 was damage by the shipper (those wonderful people that claim to have excess capacity) and I had a new one built and delivered in three weeks. The best part was that the first one was early so the replacement was right on time.

 

[Knightshade]

It happened right in Charlotte. When that store was built, they could do everything out of that store. I know that because that's were I picked up my Model S a few years ago. Later on, the Hendrick auto group managed to get their selling license revoked.

That is flatly false. Stop making things up dude.

The Charlotte location never had a dealers license.

Nobody got anything "revoked"

They didn't need a license to deliver a car (and still don't)


Tesla applied for an exemption to get a license- Hendrick (and others) argued against it- and the license was turned down.

here's a news story proving once again I provide facts and you just make things up-

North Carolina walks back on direct sales and denies Tesla’s latest dealership license

The article explains Raleigh got a license, but Charlotte was denied one.

As for the Raleigh store, for years they had adequate parking available to them but just recently, they lost the use of the lot.

False.

What they had was a small lot they still have that holds very few cars.

What they did first when the 3s came in was park them on the street up and down the road without tags.

Because nobody had bothered to plan for a 10x increase in car volume

Then another business called the cops, so they had to stop parking them there.

Then they rented a spare lot from a closed down gym (there's a thread on here with pictures of it loaded up with 3s).

Only a couple of months later they lost that lot because the owner sold the property.

They had no long-term agreement on using the lot you see.

And no backup plan.

And still don't.



Citing gallery locations is stupid, there is no point in putting a gallery in a location where all they can to is show the car[/QUOTE]

Then why is Tesla wasting all this money building things you say have "no point"?

because there is a point of course.

Charlotte is in fact a GREAT example.

The gallery there can still show and deliver cars.

It just can't take orders or payments- the paperwork goes through Raleigh, everything else can be done in Charlotte.

Again from the cited source proving you wrong-

In order to bypass the system and keep its Charlotte location, Tesla will use what it calls “galleries” instead of stores or dealerships. To comply with state laws, Tesla employees at galleries can show the cars to potential customers and educate them on Tesla’s offering and electric vehicles in general, but they cannot discuss pricing or take an order.

, Tesla has no problem with demand.

Nobody claimed they did.

They have a huge problem with delivery though. Which Tesla (unlike you) admits they have, and is the topic of this thread.

Even a Tesla built gallery is not allowed in South Carolina (and many other states) anyway.

Again- complete nonsense and completely false.

Otherwise how do you explain all the galleries in states they can't legally sell cars in like Texas?

But by all means, please cite the imaginary SC law that prohibits them from having a gallery in SC.

 

[mos6507]

it's not uncommon for such companies to leapfrog existing technologies and companies by multiple generations, or obsolete their competition altogether.

Tesla is not exactly a new startup. When should we expect that to be? Before or after they run out of cash?

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Again- complete nonsense and completely false.

Otherwise how do you explain all the galleries in states they can't legally sell cars in like Texas?

But by all means, please cite the imaginary SC law that prohibits them from having a gallery in SC.

It's easily explained by state laws. States have different laws regarding what is considered to be acting as a dealer, and what manufacturers can do directly.

Michigan, for example, has very restrictive laws that prevents Tesla from even operating service centers. I think it's that all-encompassing restriction that encouraged Tesla to sue Michigan rather than other states. The service center is the only really important part of local presence.