Tesla Tires Anyone?

[Dan Detweiler]

This video seemed absurd initially, but in watching it, it starts to make a lot of sense. Especially in regard to a future robo taxi fleet. I can see this happening in the not too distant future. Not high on the priority list at this point, but once they have 7 or 8 factories up and running and true FSD is realized, this might be a thing. Thoughts?

Dan

 

[LN1_Casey]

While I can understand the reasoning, I don't think Tesla will (or should) gain a tire service business as a part of their merger. I think that tires are one of the easiest things for people to outsource, and the complexity of making and sourcing your own tire designs should take a back seat to battery design and motor design in Tesla's line up.

Further, Tesla is notoriously bad with service. They're a new company, but at the same time, they could have hired someone competent by now to fix the issues people have. Until they focus more time and money into the services they already have, they shouldn't expand out to a new tire service market.

 

[Dan Detweiler]

While I can understand the reasoning, I don't think Tesla will (or should) gain a tire service business as a part of their merger. I think that tires are one of the easiest things for people to outsource, and the complexity of making and sourcing your own tire designs should take a back seat to battery design and motor design in Tesla's line up.

Further, Tesla is notoriously bad with service. They're a new company, but at the same time, they could have hired someone competent by now to fix the issues people have. Until they focus more time and money into the services they already have, they shouldn't expand out to a new tire service market.

I see this more as maintenance for their own fleet more than for private owners.

Dan

 

[LN1_Casey]

I see this more as maintenance for their own fleet more than for private owners.

Dan

I don't think they'd need a whole company for their own tire service. They already get their tires for their new cars from some other contractual seller, and if they, say, double their current purchase orders they probably will get as good of deals as with Discount Tires without all the add-ons.

Now, the service centers is the issue for that volume. If they got the discount tire business, that'd be far more infrastructure than they need for their own fleet, and so it'd be a drain unless they also provide similar service to private owners. And that mess is just a cluster they can't even handle at their current levels.

 

[user212_nr]

There is nothing special about changing tires. All they need is a warehouse and a few jacks, a few employees. The skill level for changing tires is low and can be taught to anyone in a few days.

The warehouse can be centrally located, in the middle of nowhere, and filled with only one type of tire. When buying a tire retail business, you are buying the storefront, the cash register, the customers, etc. You will pay them for their customers when they are the customer. It would be like buying a barber shop to save on haircuts.

The value of a brand and its customers is far more than the value of them having setup a shop somewhere.

Tesla also does not have any scale on its robotaxi fleet which does not yet exist, so they can just take the cars to any tire change location or even their own service centers. It takes maybe 20 minutes to change tires, and can be done faster if the tire is mounted on an extra set of rims.

 

[MC3OZ]

This video seemed absurd initially, but in watching it, it starts to make a lot of sense. Especially in regard to a future robo taxi fleet. I can see this happening in the not too distant future. Not high on the priority list at this point, but once they have 7 or 8 factories up and running and true FSD is realized, this might be a thing. Thoughts?

Dan

I raised tire manufacture and car cleaning as areas to be optimised for a Robo-Taxi fleet in the main thread sometime ago..

The consensus was that the opportunities for disruption are minimal, tired designed are well optimised.

However, from a sheer volume point of view, if Robo-taxi's require 80 million new tires per year, that is a lot of tires.
it is an area where costs can be optimised.

However, I think a Robo-taxi will need cleaning at least once per day, that is an even bigger area of cost optimisation...

IMO it is very likely that Tesla has considered all relevant issues... the tire shop business could perhaps be a franchise opportunity, Tesla would not save much money by displacing a small well run family business.. Allowing that business to operate under the Tesla brand and sell Tesla tires is an opportunity.

Perhaps Robo-taxi cleaning can be a similar franchise opportunity, again it is well suited to a small family owned company.