In my obviously very biased opinion as a TM3 owner, I am both happy and sad for this news.
The Tesla store in the mall near my house is fun. My kids love going there and sitting in the different models, and my son knows how to trigger all the Easter eggs, like making the X falcon doors dance.
At the same time, I have zero use for the store now that I’m an owner, and I had zero use for the store in actually making my purchase. The test drive that I did finally do of the TM3 (after I had already put $3,500 down and was entirely certain I would be buying the car) was actually underwhelming because I didn’t get nearly enough time with the car to really appreciate it, nor get to drive it in any kind of interesting terrain.
Actually driving my own TM3 on the other hand blew me away from nearly the first moment and still does.
I wonder how many owners are like me in that with the massive quantity of YouTube videos and reviews, already knew with certainty a TM3 would be their next car without actually needing to drive it? BTW, I’ve never had that with another car, and never would have dreamed of buying a car without driving it, before Tesla.
At the TM3 base-range $35k starting price, I think the vast, vast majority of people who “trial” one will keep it. This is particularly true if you’ve already made any kind of actual arrangement to charge it at a decent kW rate.
I would add that they need to have a trial mode of the full auto-pilot functionality, and also perhaps the ability to pay monthly for auto-pilot software subscription rather than bumping up the sticker price. This would also help with reducing sales tax and excise taxes I think.
I just hope the car-buying public is ready for this. Tesla will rely heavily, extremely heavily on word of mouth without a way for people to easily get in and touch and test drive a model with no commitment. Luckily I give test drives to everyone I know who I can talk into it, and I’m guessing most owners act the same in an effort to evangelize.
But as they try to go more mass market and compete with the Accords and Camrys, as they have less of the evangelical early adopters, will that target market a) have the charging infrastructure readily available, and b) really be willing to buy purely online and sight unseen?
I want this to work, and fear that it won’t. They are pushing so damn hard to get to that $35k price point with any kind of margin left over. If they had another year of process improvements maybe they could do it even with the stores. Without a store they can pull forward a profitable $35k TM3 several months at least. So it makes perfect sense while still being a huge gamble. Wild ride.
(Copied from the other post about the same news)