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Highest production VIN in the wild
- Thread starter insaneoctane
- Start date
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- Model 3
Wondering if they are not geared up for the Model 3 delivery volumes. Perhaps, they have just enough staff to deliver two or three cars per day and then they need to deliver 10 cars per day. Just wondering how many man hours per car for delivery? When I picked up my Model S, back in 2013, they took a couple of hours to handle the paper work and train me on the car. Most of that was the training part and I could have used more as I made many mistakes in the first few days until I figured things out. In addition to that time, there was the tech time to clean up the car, check things out and charge it. So maybe this process takes 4 hours all together per car and you are increasing your deliveries from roughly 2,000 per week to 3,000 per week or 8,000 man hours to 12,000 man hours per week. On top of that, I'm guessing that these cars are arriving in waves of 8 to 10, maybe more at a time. I know in California, they set up delivery centers to deal with this issue. But they have not done this in other markets. I can see this problem getting worse over time as they gear up to delivering 7,000 cars per week. I'm pretty sure that our local service and sales center in St Louis does not have the space or the manpower to increase their throughput 350% plus to provide service to all of these additional cars. They have plans for a new service/sales center but that is many months away.
There seems to be an issue with one of the power components in a certain VIN range, so deliveries may be delayed to swap the part out.
RTPEV
Active Member
I just can't imagine a scenario where it makes a lot of sense to do this. Unless the battery is one of the very last things to be attached to the vehicle along the assembly line, it would just make sense to not start a new vehicle down the line until you new you had a battery waiting for it went it got to that part of the manufacturing line.
If anything, it would make more sense to stockpile a bunch of batteries at the plant and then do a burst run of Model 3s.
Agreed. Rear seat goes in after battery. Also, it would be infeasible to load/unload the 3's from car carriers without a battery to move it.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Reciprocity
Active Member
From talking to guys at my local service center, they are doing 14 per day and delivering them as fast as they come in. Some deliveries only take 15 minutes because everyone getting their cars today are owners. Some take longer of course and I believe they plan for an hour. There is time required to prep the cars when they show up. I dont know how much effort that is but they need a full detail because they can get pretty dirty in transport. Interior is probably pretty clean but still needs a once through. I am sure there is at least some type of quality check to make sure their are no major issues. I would guess it takes about 5x as long to prep then to deliver on average. This location could probably deliver at most 20 per day because the delivery area is also where they clean and prep the cars, its a very small location.
This has been my suspicion for a little while now. I don't see how they're going to be able to handle eventual deliveries of 5000 a week with the amount of stores they have now. Their delivery capacity will quickly become the new bottleneck (if it hasn't already). As far as I know only California has dedicated delivery centers and everywhere else in the country the deliveries are handled by the local stores. For example my state, NJ, only has a total of four Tesla stores and two of those are just showrooms located in malls. I doubt any mall location would handle deliveries. This is pretty bad, especially for the most densely populated state in the US. Current legislation limits Tesla to a total of four direct sale locations (not including service centers) in NJ. Tesla is going to have to open at least one location dedicated entirely to deliveries in NJ to handle the load.
So, if you gear up a location to handle 10 deliveries/day, what do you do with those employees when deliveries temporarily drop (based on local customers) to 1 or 2 /day?
10 per day would only be one or two employees. They could handle walk in test drives, vehicle prep, site clean up. same as any other service business.
Tesla could theoretically have a mobile delivery team (or teams) that travel the country in coordination with deliveries. They could set up temporary delivery locations, blow out a chunk of cars in a region, and move to the next.
It would require some logistical planning and it’s not really a long term sustainable model, but it would work through the ramp.
Reciprocity
Active Member
I think thats overkill. There are roughly 200 locations in the US and 100 outside the US. Each one delivers 10 per day x 5 days per week is 10k per week in the US and 15k/w WW. 10 per day could be done with just 2 delivery bays as long as you had different bays for prep and cleaning. Those would be averages as some stores cant deliver anything and some locations can deliver dozens of cars at a time.
X Fan
Active Member
Well at least in Denver they only deliver at the service center (1 in the state) and have plenty of employees and sales people standing around. When I was there yesterday the 4 sales people were just taking about their previous jobs. No deliveries that I could see in the sales and service area were taking place even though they had 10+ 3s in the parking lot.
To say they are under staffed is not the case here in Denver. If anything, they looked over staffed in sales. One thing that stood out was the over 80 Tesla vehicles spread out over their large lot. All in for service as they do not sell or have any used Tesla’s at this location. Some model s’ had signs stating “no part eta” in the windshield.
The bigger worry needs to be on the service side. If Tesla can deliver on their promises, I don’t see how they can service them in a timely manner as I’ve had issues with them on my P85+, taking over a month to get it in service. I know they have gone through 5 service managers over the past 2 years. I can’t help but wonder that a service department that makes no to little money servicing warrantied cars is going to be able to substain itself. Tesla’s cash burn is a real thing. And a real concern.
Little maintenance is great for the owner of a Tesla but anyone that has worked in a large brand dealership knows that the service department is how these companies make money, not the sales department.
To say they are under staffed is not the case here in Denver. If anything, they looked over staffed in sales. One thing that stood out was the over 80 Tesla vehicles spread out over their large lot. All in for service as they do not sell or have any used Tesla’s at this location. Some model s’ had signs stating “no part eta” in the windshield.
The bigger worry needs to be on the service side. If Tesla can deliver on their promises, I don’t see how they can service them in a timely manner as I’ve had issues with them on my P85+, taking over a month to get it in service. I know they have gone through 5 service managers over the past 2 years. I can’t help but wonder that a service department that makes no to little money servicing warrantied cars is going to be able to substain itself. Tesla’s cash burn is a real thing. And a real concern.
Little maintenance is great for the owner of a Tesla but anyone that has worked in a large brand dealership knows that the service department is how these companies make money, not the sales department.
200 locations... how many actually deliver cars though? Only one of the three here in Colorado does.
RobStark
Well-Known Member
The world is not Colorado with their stupid franchise dealer laws.
RobStark
Well-Known Member
It really isn't. Tesla makes money on car sales. And soon on electricity sales.
Not maintenance.
Nor does Tesla have dealership Taj Mahals in every county in America. They do have one in San Francisco and a few in China( where China's wealthy demand a store that intimidates the plebes).
Nor does Tesla spend 3% of the car's sales in price in Television, Print,and Radio advertising.
Giving a Youtuber in Europe, one in Asia, and another in North America a free car every few years is a lot less expensive.
roblab
Active Member
Hmmmm. Remembering back a hazy 5 years, I don't think it took four hours to "train" me to drive the S. I do remember that the place was empty and they had all day, but I was ready to go. Same with the 3. Since I came in an S, it was obvious I didn't need much more than a 15 minute run through the screens and a 15 minute drive. Pretty much did both of these alone after 15 minutes of "paperwork" which I'd printed off from Tesla's site and already signed.
Wonder if they couldn't just sit people down in front of a video first. You could skip through the parts you know. Or Tesla could require they watch and sign off before Tesla handed out a VIN. It's ridiculous to have a "salesperson" sit explaining the exact same thing over and over for hours for each new customer. "You drive a car? It's a car. Here's the keycard."
I lived in MO for 20 years. I understand that some people shouldn't drive at all, much less a Tesla.
Reciprocity
Active Member
Are all 3 in Denver? I lived in Denver on my way to California before ending up in Chicago most recently. Denver and the metro area is really the only big city in Colorado so you would expect deliveries to be concentrated a bit. Chicago is something like that with only a few full service/sales centers in and around Chicago, probably no more then 4 or 5 total. They service Michigan and Wisconsin from them as well so its probably even more concentrated then Denver would be. One of those locations is much bigger then the rest and could probably deliver a lot of cars. It looks like an old Lexus or Nissan dealership. The rest are like my service center where they have 8-10 services bays and delivery section about the same size with upwards of a dozen 3s cycling through there every day. This is a very small location, the show room is about the size of an average living room and has room for 1 S or X.
suwaneedad
Member
A billion thumbs-ups on this comment. I think right now that Tesla is doing the usual 'white glove' treatment because all people taking delivery are owners who are therefore used to the 'white glove' thing. In short order, the bar lowers tremendously as non-owners take delivery of their first Tesla. 100% of those non-owners are used to the traditional car dealership approach: gobs of inventory, test drives, negotiating price, the Finance Grind, and so on. All of that disappears in the Tesla purchase/delivery experience. Just leave my key card on the dash, point me to my car, and I'll be on my way. Two minutes, tops. If Tesla could make it an ATM-style transaction where I show up, scan my driver license or some other ID validation, and my key cards fall out the bottom of a Delivery Vending Machine, that'd be ideal. Pick my car up anytime, 24x7. This is how Amazon would handle it, if they made EVs.
