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Tesla's new Strategy?!?!?

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Keep in mind that this is likely not supercharger related. Elon confirmed that this is part 3 of the 5 part trilogy. A quick recap on the 5 parts:

1) TSLA Profitable
2) Lease
3) Service
4) Supercharger
5) Right under your nose

On the one hand, he may have just lost track of which is number 3. On the other hand, he likes making a very big public fuss with all his announcements, and the service-side thing so far was fairly low-key.

I'm thinking service too. I can't think of many owners who were thrilled with their service plans.

*edit* jeesh, didn't realize the thread had gone to 6 pages and had already been covered. Ah well, I knew the "loaner" thing couldn't be the full announcement.


*backs slowly out*
 
If they sell one more 100K car because of positive perceptions of the service advantages, it easily trumps right up-front the slow revenue dribble of a large number of $600 annuities.
The announcement will increase consumer interest in Tesla.
And that is the ultimate goal.
 
I am not even going to get excited about this. I am betting it is something as uninteresting as an internal reorg and/or increased staffing: "We are merging Service and Sales and hiring 100 new Advisors to provide a world-class Customer Experience!". Ho hum. Please prove me wrong, Elon. Or just flip the switch on a hundred new Superchargers, already!
 
If all service would be made free, how would a service centers make money? A lot of real estate, and employee overhead for doing free work for 3 years seems tough.
At this point Tesla only has a few hundred Roadsters in each area (or less) as legacy cars now out of warranties coming in for the rare major service.
 
I agree with Bardlebee... I don't think Tesla trusts their "baby" in anyone else's hands anytime soon... not Pep Boys, not even a partner like Toyota or Mercedes.

I definitely understand the idea of bracing for a super mundane announcement, but I do have cautious optimism service price will come down. As to lost revenue, again, I think it is possible that the price increase in January was part I of a plan to redo service decision... put large part of service in cost of car ($2500 price increase) so several months later similar amount of the cost of service (roughly $2000 over first 8 years) can be backed out of cost of plan by cutting price in half.

only other option beyond super mundane, or service cost reduction I can see would be semi-mundane of plan for more service centers (i.e. something like by end of 2014 50% increase of service centers, will bring 90% of owners within 50 miles of a center).
 
I agree with Bardlebee... I don't think Tesla trusts their "baby" in anyone else's hands anytime soon... not Pep Boys, not even a partner like Toyota or Mercedes.

I definitely understand the idea of bracing for a super mundane announcement, but I do have cautious optimism service price will come down. As to lost revenue, again, I think it is possible that the price increase in January was part I of a plan to redo service decision... put large part of service in cost of car ($2500 price increase) so several months later similar amount of the cost of service (roughly $2000 over first 8 years) can be backed out of cost of plan by cutting price in half.

only other option beyond super mundane, or service cost reduction I can see would be semi-mundane of plan for more service centers (i.e. something like by end of 2014 50% increase of service centers, will bring 90% of owners within 50 miles of a center).

Some hesitation for buyers is the additional service prices. Of course you get this with every car right? But you additionally have to do stuff like prep your garage, this is an added expense. So maybe a re-working of services will help relieve this stress as we have seen people spend nearly 2k alone for just a garage plug in!
 
My guess is the announcement being about being able to update cars with retrofits. Not entirely new to tesla as they did this with the roadster, but model s will be radically upgradable in future with new battery packs etc. already can upgrade perf plus and parking sensors which are already announced in Europe will be made an available retrofit today. This is a new "strategy" for auto industry.
 
My guess is the announcement being about being able to update cars with retrofits. Not entirely new to tesla as they did this with the roadster, but model s will be radically upgradable in future with new battery packs etc. already can upgrade perf plus and parking sensors which are already announced in Europe will be made an available retrofit today. This is a new "strategy" for auto industry.

Would be nice!
 
My guess is the announcement being about being able to update cars with retrofits. Not entirely new to tesla as they did this with the roadster, but model s will be radically upgradable in future with new battery packs etc. already can upgrade perf plus and parking sensors which are already announced in Europe will be made an available retrofit today. This is a new "strategy" for auto industry.

It would be cool if Tesla could put in a second motor into the existing MS to upgrade to AWD even if it were not planned for a year or so (definitely in the wildest dreams category though).
 
If all service would be made free, how would a service centers make money? A lot of real estate, and employee overhead for doing free work for 3 years seems tough.
At this point Tesla only has a few hundred Roadsters in each area (or less) as legacy cars now out of warranties coming in for the rare major service.

Why do they have to make money (directly)? A key advantage of Tesla's approach to BEVs is the ability to change the model entirely and take advantage of the low maintenance.

Service centers are needed anyway for efficient delivery and warranty repair. If Tesla focuses on lowering maintenance costs it becomes a differentiator: they minimize while ICEV dealerships maximize. Factor basic costs into the pricing, with free servicing for a certain number of miles per year, reasonable prices for higher miles, get a little extra income (using company 25% margin?) for rover service and replacement parts that your trusting, happy customers might be willing to pay for you to install.

EDIT:
While I'm probably already dead wrong, I should add that unlike many other cars, Tesla has telemetry data available that can help reduce warranty costs and service visits. Why poke the customer for another $k here and there if it just costs them a $15k to $20k profit on other sales?
 
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