How will Tesla sell their cars in the future?

100% company owned stores. no dealers.

Unless it ends up not working for some reason, I think they're going to stick with their Internet and Apple-type store plan.

If it were me, I would set up the maintenance shops in low cost, centralized suburbs, and use them to allow for more test drives and future inventory needs.

Mycroft said:

If it were me, I would set up the maintenance shops in low cost, centralized suburbs, and use them to allow for more test drives and future inventory needs.

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Hi Mycroft,

I think that they are headed in that direction. Here in Florida we have a Store/Service Center located in an industrial park in Dania Beach near two interstate highways. We were told that the Store (sales) functions are being relocated to a high traffic Miami Beach location and the Dania Beach location is being expanded to be exclusively a maintenance shop.

Larry

Larry Chanin said:

Hi Mycroft,

I think that they are headed in that direction. Here in Florida we have a Store/Service Center located in an industrial park in Dania Beach near two interstate highways. We were told that the Store (sales) functions are being relocated to a high traffic Miami Beach location and the Dania Beach location is being expanded to be exclusively a maintenance shop.

Larry

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Now that's some interesting news that TM is going to open a Miami Beach sales location.

tdelta1000 said:

Now that's some interesting news that TM is going to open a Miami Beach sales location.

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SW Florida would be much more interesting....:wink:

NigelM said:

SW Florida would be much more interesting....:wink:

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Hi Nigel,

You bet'cha.

And we were told that a new Store/Service center is planned for either the Tampa or Orlando area before year-end!

Larry

Returning to the original poster's question, "How will Tesla sell their cars in the future?", like others initially I expect there will be a rapid expansion of Tesla Stores in high traffic locations. Since a compelling and high performing electric vehicle is still a novelty, I believe that Tesla will continue to receive a lot of free advertising from the media, especially on-line media.

Until the mass market car is released in sufficient numbers, it would be unwise to resort to conventional advertising, i.e. TV, radio, print. There is no point in creating a large demand for vehicles that can't be satisfied by the limited early production rates.

After the Model S is released I believe early adopters, particularly organized car clubs, will represent a very powerful and influencial force in selling the car.

Larry

If I were in GeorgeB's org at Tesla, I'd make a case for partnering with prominent high-tech firms such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Facebook (with their soon-to-be-minted-millionaires) along with traditional companies such as GE who'd probably be willing to organize EVents on their corporate campuses or in high-traffic, neutral venues to promote Tesla cars.

I'd rather some of the employees of these companies buy a Tesla rather than a Porsche; such events will definitely get free publicity on many tech news sites if not some mainstream publications such as Fortune, Forbes, etc.

Mitrovic said:

Tesla has plans to offer several models in three years. How are they going to sell them? Tesla Stores owned by Tesla opening in every major city, or are they going to work with dealerships?

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This is a valid question true enough...How will TM manage the movement of products through its stores if demand continues to rise? The first run of the Models S has sold out and Tesla Motors has yet to put out an official marketing campaign.

I think TM may or could set up two distribution points for getting the vehicles out to its customers. One center could be in some place like Texas which would serve the mid west and the other could be in Georgia serving the east coast. The centers would do the final prepping and ship to the stores.

tdelta1000 said:

The first run of the Models S has sold out and Tesla Motors has yet to put out an official marketing campaign.

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I don't think Tesla will need a huge marketing campaign (other than what they have now: online, press, word-of-mouth) in the next 2-3 years. Next year they will produce just about 10000 cars for the North American market. It's just a drop in the ocean. When you have a great product it sells itself, especially when you have such a limited inventory. But you really need to have a great product. Because if you don't, even the commercial won't help you:

gg_wants_a_tesla said:

If I were in GeorgeB's org at Tesla, I'd make a case for partnering with prominent high-tech firms such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Facebook (with their soon-to-be-minted-millionaires) along with traditional companies such as GE who'd probably be willing to organize EVents on their corporate campuses or in high-traffic, neutral venues to promote Tesla cars.

I'd rather some of the employees of these companies buy a Tesla rather than a Porsche; such events will definitely get free publicity on many tech news sites if not some mainstream publications such as Fortune, Forbes, etc.

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Thanks for the boost, Hannah!

How Facebook's New Rich Will Spend Their Spoils - Forbes

Would love to see some FB employees crossing my path in a Model S or X during my daily commute past their Menlo Park HQ!

I was in the DC store this last weekend and during a conversation, the rep I was talking to very confidently told me that Tesla would never keep inventory. Specifically, he said they will always build cars per order in a 1:1 manner as orders are placed.

mwu said:

I was in the DC store this last weekend and during a conversation, the rep I was talking to very confidently told me that Tesla would never keep inventory. Specifically, he said they will always build cars per order in a 1:1 manner as orders are placed.

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I guess their model is to always have pent up demand..More efficient that way rather than hold stock and cut prices. It will be interesting to see if a manufacturer can sell 20k+ cars this way.

smoothoperator said:

I guess their model is to always have pent up demand..More efficient that way rather than hold stock and cut prices. It will be interesting to see if a manufacturer can sell 20k+ cars this way.

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Only problem with this model - as others have pointed out in the past - is that Tesla could lose out on

a) impulse buyers
b) folks who'd like to see real cars on the lot with varying option combos and would like to pull the trigger then

It's debatable if future buyers (after we early adopters have been exhausted) will fall in one of the two categories above or if they'd be willing to wait a few weeks/months after ordering a config.

Yes, but somtimes something that is not quite attainable becomes more desireable. Car makes have been doing this forever, limiting initial releases to keep up hype and prices.

I think they will have some demo units so people can take a look at the car. I doubt they will have stock though. But they can always adjust this strategy if demand drops enough.

Will customers actually pick up their cars from the store or will a transporter drop the car off at the customers house? I can't imagine someone who just dropped 100k on a car feeling "special" when they pick up their car in a mall parking lot....There are a lot of small details that need to be worked out with these "new" Tesla stores. I think the best way to handle this, would be you go into the Tesla store, place your order and in a few weeks the car gets delivered to your house.