Where did you hear this?
I don't think they would shut down all sales stores that doesn't make sense. Some people need to see a real car in person first.
Where did you hear this?
https://www.tesla.com/en_AU/blog/35000- ... edirect=no
TheBeastie wrote: ↑Mar 01 2019 12:38amThis is not an adjustment to strategy. This is a total reversal. They had a retail plan 2 months ago and concluded they had to tear the whole thing up and come up with a radical new plan. What does that say about the company?
Punx0r wrote: ↑Mar 01 2019 3:42amInteresting to reflect on the many comments saying Tesla would "never" offer the $35k model, that it was all a scam.
Closing of dealerships is a bold move, though. Currently Tesla has enough of an Apple-style fan following that they're not competing for, or need to attract, customers, so it will probably work. But with other large car makers starting to take EVs seriously, things will likely get more competitive and Tesla lacking the facility for potential customers to browse their product might turn out to be a real disadvantage. You can imagine the criticism: "I did think about a Tesla, but they expect you to just order one online unseen!". We'll see how it pans out - as cricketo says, they are innovating.
Presumably there will still be physical service & repair centres dotted around, although they might be more sparsely located than your traditional car dealership.
Yeah ok. So they will still have show rooms etc. Just no sales people pe-say.jonescg wrote: ↑Mar 01 2019 12:04amhttps://www.tesla.com/en_AU/blog/35000- ... edirect=no
"To achieve these prices while remaining financially sustainable, Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free. With the highest consumer satisfaction score of any car on the road, we are confident you will want to keep your Tesla.
Shifting all sales online, combined with other ongoing cost efficiencies, will enable us to lower all vehicle prices by about 6% on average, allowing us to achieve the $35,000 Model 3 price point earlier than we expected. Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores, with a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers. The important thing for customers in the United States to understand is that, with online sales, anyone in any state can quickly and easily buy a Tesla."
Uhm nope. Not even close its still up well above 300k!TheBeastie wrote: ↑Mar 01 2019 12:38am
This is also on top of the low demand/price cuts on Tesla cars that has now emerged from a build-up of 2 years worth of ordering that's now pretty much been fulfilled (aside from the 35k orders)
They are closing their sales offices, not their repair locations. Sales offices are typically in fancy malls or posh neighborhoods, and the repair locations are on cheaper real estate. Here in San Diego there's a showroom in the UTC mall (very fancy area) and the repair place is about five miles away outside the Miramar military base (a little seedy.) The only thing the sales offices do are talk about cars and do test drives; everything else, from picking up the car to buying accessories to getting it fixed, takes place at the repair location.
billvon wrote: ↑Mar 01 2019 11:40amThey are closing their sales offices, not their repair locations. Sales offices are typically in fancy malls or posh neighborhoods, and the repair locations are on cheaper real estate. Here in San Diego there's a showroom in the UTC mall (very fancy area) and the repair place is about five miles away outside the Miramar military base (a little seedy.) The only thing the sales offices do are talk about cars and do test drives; everything else, from picking up the car to buying accessories to getting it fixed, takes place at the repair location.
On the plus side, the cheap real estate has made that area a mecca for new breweries. Breweries there include:
Zach Albrecht diego13 • 19 minutes ago
This is actually incorrect. Panasonic has provided the original manufacturing equipment, the license to the original chemistry, and processes to build the cells today. The chemistry used by Tesla today is not sold in any Panasonic batteries sold today since it is exclusive to Tesla and hence is why all other manufacturers are trying to come up with their own composition. They may end up having to license it through Tesla.
Tesla has a chemistry RD department that parents over the multiple subsidiaries and contracts with other international entities. This is headed by CTO Straubel. Think of it more as a hybrid between traditional chemistry R&D and contractual outsourcing. About 2/3 of the department budgetary goes to a fluctuating, currently, 19 different partnerships and contracted engineering organizations that focuses explicitly on battery chemistry and process.
The chemistry composition they use in batteries produced today is an accumulation of the partnership through Dalhousie University in Canada which started back in 2015. Dalhousie is the primary sponsor of the patent in use today. Tesla, as co-sponsor, has free licensing rights due to them heavily investing in the funds needed by the group. The Dalhousie partnership is also where the accumulation of effort to achieve 1/4 the cobalt has been ascertained. The goal of the partnership is to find a suitable replacement of cobalt. Further Tesla has several pending chemistry patents they are co-sponsor on. Just because it's not declarative in their name as primary sponsor, doesn't mean they don't have it.
Estimated global reserves of cobalt amount to just under one kilogram per person now living. So we really need to figure out a workaround.liveforphysics wrote: ↑Apr 01 2019 12:53pmThis is so awesome for EV's globally, because Cobalt is not only a dominate cell material cost driver, but also a challenging raw material to extract.
No, Tesla is not using 8:1:1 for Model 3.liveforphysics wrote: ↑Apr 01 2019 12:53pmModel 3 cell today is 8:1:1 (if I remember right), meaning it's 9 parts Nickel and Manganese for 1 part Cobalt.
Very few people know the actual manufactuted cost of Tesla's cells......or any one else's .
It's really hilarious when you try to invent negativity even when it's hopeless. Cobalt is the most expensive component of the Lithium Ion cells. Use less cobalt, make cheaper cell.
Cobalt is the most expensive component only in terms of its cost per tonne.. but it is a small proportion of the cell by weight, and consequently it is still only a small fraction , (+_ 5%).. of the overall cell cost.