The Tesla Approach to Distributing and Servicing Cars

Post by chucknelson » Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 1:24 AM UTC

run4yourlives wrote: post #87

enraged_camel wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you give similar answers to the Maserati sales rep, they will also charge you a fee for test-driving, or maybe not even let you test-drive. Like I said, any high-end car sales rep is trained to quickly profile potential buyers. They judge everything from your looks to your body language and profession. When you're talking about really expensive cars, it's better to err on the side of caution and lose a few potenti…

I agree with you.

Post by sokoloff » Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 1:36 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #73

tadfisher wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you, by some affliction unimaginable, actually don't like the car? Is it worth $300 to determine that?

I've paid $3K to rent an Audi R8 for the weekend. I currently have a Model S reservation. I'm cool with paying $300 to see if I want to spend $80K on a car (0.00375% of the value of the vehicle).

Post by jacques_chester » Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 1:43 AM UTC

salimmadjd wrote: post #109

CamperBob2 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to assume many of you are going to disagree with me. Mainly because we come from a world with a much different customer acquisition models. I don't disagree with path A, but the fact is, path B (and Musk's prediction that half of all cars sold will be full electric by 2032) can't possibly happen with our current power distribution system in place. The only conceivable way that electric cars are going to tak…

swappable battery is important for those who need to drive beyond the battery range or don't have a good option to easily charge their cars overnight. This could be for people who live in big cities like San Francisco (although you can imaging a plug every parking spot 20 years from now) or for people who maybe going on a road trip. Which would make you wonder if people would not have two cars. One for daily commute…

Post by ghshephard » Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 2:46 AM UTC

michaelt wrote: post #101

SeanLuke wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably neither A nor B. The total electricity cost over the lifetime of a Tesla Model S is surprisingly small, so small that it can effectively rolled into the price of the vehicle itself. In fact this is one of the problems with current electric vehicles: the battery alone may cost more than all the electricity you'd use to charge it over its lifetime. Additionally they can certainly recoup costs on charging non-T…

Life expectancy of a car 150,000 to 300,000 miles [1] Cost of electricity: 6 to 12 cents per kWh [2] Performance of Model S: 300 miles in 85 kWh [3] Cost of Model S: $57,400 to $77,400 [3] Electricity cost: $2,550 to $10,200 Percentage of $57,400 vehicle cost: 4.44% to 17.77% There's also a supercharger 'activation fee' for the models that don't have the highest end battery [4] which presumably rolls in some of that…

Post by klinquist » Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 3:05 AM UTC

run4yourlives wrote: post #48

Gring wrote: post #16

"The Product Specialists (...) goal and the sole metric of their success is to have you enjoy the experience of visiting so much that you look forward to returning again." This is not the experience I had. Walked into a Tesla store, said I want to test drive a Roadster. Salesman went into that profiling mode that all car salesmen do constantly and no customer likes, asking me all kinds of questions to find out how mu…

Can you actually afford a Tesla? Honestly? And if the answer is no, would you want someone you pay good money to spending time with someone that doesn't have the means to actually buy the product instead of a person who does?