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Model S Delivery Dates and Sequencing

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GeorgeB

Tesla Motors VP, Sales & Ownership Experience
Jan 5, 2012
34
2
Hi everyone,

I know the last few months have been quite frustrating surrounding two issues: Model S delivery dates and the sequence of deliveries. Our communication on these two issues has been weak at best. There are reasons for this, but it will only sound like an excuse if I try to explain them, so I will not.

What you need to know is that we have been intensely, intensely working on these issues. A personal communication will be going out today to all Signature reservation holders that have not received their car (or are scheduled to receive their car in the next few days). This communication will explain at a high level what has happened and what will happen going forward.

For those who have been caught up in this whirlwind of issues, I apologize for the inconvenience. Our first communication to help take care of this will be out soon.

Sincerely, GeorgeB
 
Just talked with my Delivery Specialist who informed me that there is a huge push today getting cars out for delivery.
She didn't elaborate on the details, but simply stated that deliveries are once again in full gear and the plan is still for all Sigs to get delivered in the next few weeks.
I am P1117 and she said that based upon what she's seeing currently she would expect to see my paperwork come through to her within the next couple of weeks, and barring any new issues I should see delivery by the end of November. She was understandably very cautious in her replies, but did a great job of handling my questions in a very polite and professional manner.
I've NO doubt that everything that can be done to keep things moving (in a quality manner) is being done.
Patience cricket, patience. :-/

Thanks George!
 
Hope George doesn't hate me for sharing ;)

We have been receiving a lot of very specific questions lately regarding the delivery timing of Signature cars. I have received many inquiries personally, and the Delivery Specialists and Ownership Experience teams are both receiving questions regarding this issue on a daily basis. Given our recently modified 2012 production plan and the information we now have, after several weeks of digging into this issue, I thought it would be helpful to send a personal message to all Signature reservation holders who have not yet received their car to give them an update and explain exactly what is going on.

As you probably know, our initial estimate of 5,000 cars by the end of 2012 has been re-estimated to between 2,500 and 3,000 cars. This change was announced several weeks ago and is the result of several factors, including a number of global supplier issues and our own in-house quality expectations. This change does not impact the number of Signature cars that will be built, and we will still produce cars in "series order" as originally planned. This means we will still produce Model S Signature cars first, then move to General Production cars.

The primary impact of this revised production ramp is that early Model S deliveries have been moved out approximately 4 to 6 weeks. For some of you, this change means that the estimated delivery date on your order paperwork has now passed, and you may have had the delivery date of your Model S scheduled and then re-scheduled to a later date. This is very unfortunate and is not something we are happy about or taking lightly. I apologize for this inconvenience. We are now actively resolving the issues that have caused delays, and over the next few weeks you will see a substantial improvement in the accuracy of our projected delivery dates. We know what needs to be done, and we appreciate the patience you have shown as we work through these early-stage growing pains.

There is another issue I'd also like to address briefly that has hit my inbox a few times recently and has surfaced on a few forums. The issue surrounds the sequence in which we are building and delivering Model S. This is an issue we take very seriously. Many Model S reservation holders I have met during the past two years actually introduce themselves by name and then follow their introduction by giving me their Model S Reservation Sequence Number. Their sequence number is something that is very important to them, and is very important to us. That being said, let me explain what has happened during the first three months of production and what is happening now.

We have been working very hard to build cars in the perfect sequence order while managing our way through a few supplier quality issues and a few key vendor delays. As you may recall, we had quality issues early on with Banana Leaf décor, and moved away from that option to Obeche Wood Matte. Shortly thereafter we added Obeche Wood Gloss to the list of available decors and made a few changes to the Performance Model exterior. All these changes impacted the sequence in which we could send orders to the factory. Another variable that impacts delivery is the length of time customers take to finalize their configuration. Some customers decide on options and sign their paperwork within 24 hours after receiving the invitation to configure. Others take a month or more to finalize paperwork. While this may not affect your delivery timing, it is a variable that has impacted others.

As much as we tried to juggle all the changes with the move away from Banana Leaf, the addition of Obeche Wood Matte, then the addition of Obeche Wood Gloss, and making changes to the Performance Model, we still needed to send orders to the factory every week. In some weeks it meant we had to reach forward in the sequence order to find cars that were not impacted by a particular décor or option, and in some cases the absence of a particular décor or option pushed cars back. We also had to work with how long it took some customers to configure their car. So what does all this mean? It means that when all is said and done, there will be about 26 Model S Signature cars that are built earlier than they should have been (most of which have already been delivered), and about 28 will have been built later than they should have been (all of which are now under a microscope everyday to make sure they get through production immediately and have delivery expedited). I wish we could have provided a more seamless experience, but we tried our best to prioritize weekly production orders while taking into account the quality we insisted upon, the parts we had, and the all-important sequence number.

With all this now taken into account, what should you be expecting next? For most of you (some of you are already beyond this point), two things will be happening very soon. You will be receiving an email to start prepping for your delivery, and you will be receiving a revised target delivery date from the Delivery Experience Team. The email will ask a few questions about where you would like to take delivery, if you plan to finance your Model S, if you have a trade-in, and will confirm your registration information. This email will be coming out soon and is the start of your delivery process.

I hope this helps explain a little about what has happened to date, what is going on now, and what you can expect in the near future. I believe our communication to date on this subject has been weak at best. I'm sure for some of you it has been very frustrating as well. Again, I apologize for any frustration this has caused. I firmly believe we have solutions in sight, and going forward, while we will still not be perfect, we will be better because of what we have learned.
 
That email could have been sent out a month ago. As soon as they started reaching forward in the reservation numbers, they should have realized that cars would be delivered out of sequence. Communication has always been Tesla's greatest weakness. Is it Elon's Achilles's heel? Even if it is, George as a marketing guy should know how valuable proper communication is to keeping customers happy.
 
I appreciate, as always, George's contributions here and fairly direct phrasing. The words give me some hope, though assuaging the concerns/worries I've developed will be based in the deeds: useful communications, cars delivered on time, etc. Tesla often mentions being more like a tech company than a car company, which is usually good, but of late it's been too many of the less desirable tech cliches (it's 90% there, almost ready, just a couple bugs left, we'll fix that in a patch, etc...). Having been in far too many of those types of software projects, I know it feels horrible on either side of that customer/provider relationship.
 
Ok.. I recall that. I figured since that change was some time ago, there was a new modification being made.

It takes a long time to make a change like that. First you have to cancel all of your orders for the carbon fiber bits. Then make sure you can make the same bit out of plastic, and most likely change it. Then have someone make up a die and make a few test bits. Then you have to find someone that can supply thousands of those parts.

And then other things come up like will it paint properly?
Will it look acceptable?
Is it going to stay on once it gets ran onto a sidewalk?

... and so on. 'Little' stuff like that can takes months to get ironed out.
 
I hope George isn't saying that the 2 week delay we heard about over the last week or so is really going to be 4 to 6 weeks. In my book 2 to 4 of those weeks have already happened to any of us Signature buyers that had delivery windows given to them this month.
 
It takes a long time to make a change like that. First you have to cancel all of your orders for the carbon fiber bits. Then make sure you can make the same bit out of plastic, and most likely change it. Then have someone make up a die and make a few test bits. Then you have to find someone that can supply thousands of those parts.

And then other things come up like will it paint properly?
Will it look acceptable?
Is it going to stay on once it gets ran onto a sidewalk?

... and so on. 'Little' stuff like that can takes months to get ironed out.

The only flaw with that logic, which makes absolute sense, is that they already had existing parts for non perf models. So, other than a supply issue, there'd be no logical reason to "change" the perf model, just use what's in the bin.
 
Hi everyone,

I know the last few months have been quite frustrating surrounding two issues: Model S delivery dates and the sequence of deliveries. Our communication on these two issues has been weak at best. There are reasons for this, but it will only sound like an excuse if I try to explain them, so I will not.

What you need to know is that we have been intensely, intensely working on these issues. A personal communication will be going out today to all Signature reservation holders that have not received their car (or are scheduled to receive their car in the next few days). This communication will explain at a high level what has happened and what will happen going forward.

For those who have been caught up in this whirlwind of issues, I apologize for the inconvenience. Our first communication to help take care of this will be out soon.

Sincerely, GeorgeB
George
Someone posted your email already, which I didn't get. How does all this impact Canadian Signature reservation holders?
thanks