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"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

"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 Model 3. 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," Bold

ww520 8y ago
Does that circumvent some state laws that demand selling cars through dealerships? Also does Tesla still have Tesla branded "service shop" to do car delivery/return/refund/service?
- BenoitEssiambre 8y ago
  "At the same time, we will be increasing our investment in the Tesla service system, with the goal of same-day, if not same-hour service, and with most service done by us coming to you, rather than you coming to us. Moreover, we guarantee service availability anywhere in any countries in which we operate."
  - heyyyouu 8y ago
    While service is an issue, the bigger issue right now is repairs after an accident or other, bigger problems that can't be fixed in a "daily visit on site".There are people waiting three to six months for repairs: https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/why-does-it-take-months-repair-tesla https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/why-does-it-take-month... https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/repair-time-6-months.112515/ https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/repair-time-6-months... https://www.driving.co.uk/news/features/tesla-owners-facing-extended-wait-repairs/ https://www.driving.co.uk/news/features/tesla-owners-facing-... https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tesla-owners-fume-about-delays-for-service-13112104.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tesla-owners-fu... My boss had to wait more than three months this past fall after his accident, and he was making payments the entire time (of course) --- they have not fixed this problem. And no, most insurance will not cover a loaner for this period of time.
BoorishBears 8y ago
“Courageous” If anyone has ever had to cancel a car sale you’ll realize how much of a hassle it truely is to “return a car” Your credit report will show a loan even after it’s been cancelled for weeks. I once cancelled financing for a car due to it not being as described. Started looking for a new car and found it. Got denied for a loan because my score showed a 60k loan with 0 payments made. It took almost 2 months to fully remove it from my report and start with a clean state In summary, Tesla is essentially saying “you can’t test drive it but if you don’t like it you can cancel your car search for a few months and ding your credit score for nothing” This is like mattress stores that give you a “free trial”, they know the resistance to actually doing ending your “trial” is crazy high
- Dylan16807 8y ago
  This is very good advice to keep in mind, but it's not Tesla's fault if the credit reporting agencies are terrible.
  - gowld 8y ago
    It's not Tesla's "fault", but it's cutting corners in a bizarre way for the auto sales industry. I don't want to risk $35K+taxes/fees and get an Aldi shopping experience.
  - BoorishBears 8y ago
    I think they both deserve credit, in reality returning a 30 thousand dollar object is never going to be smooth. The finance has already written you a check, they’ve already done all this leg work. You’ve already driven it, if you’re purchasing it in earnest you might have already invested in charging infrastructure for your home, a whole laundry list of friction. Then there’s what happens to the car you returned. I wouldn’t want to be the guy stuck with a car that went through multiple 1000 mile “test drives” with Tesla’s reconditioning track record of delivering cars with toe nail clippings in the seat rails (traditional dealers do have offers like this from time to time, but it’s exceedingly rare they’ll actually let you keep the car for more than a few hours, and most importantly they don’t require you to buy the car first, they’ll take a deposit or let you rent the car)
sethammons 8y ago
I would never buy something without a test drive. No level of return policy will be good enough.
- joshe 8y ago
  Does saving $2,100 help?
  - cududa 8y ago
    Not really if I have no idea what I’m buying?
    - artursapek 8y ago
      Rent it for a couple days on Turo. I did that recently with a Model 3 just to try it out.
      - sneak 8y ago
        Turo refused to rent to me because I don’t have any recent US driving/insurance history for their insurance scoring. Never had a problem at any other normal car rental place.
      - tedivm 8y ago
        So now we have to pay for test drives?
        ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
        I don't think this model makes sense for the long term. Eventually there will be enough competition that Tesla will need to go through an actual Sales/Marketing process like every other product. But as long as they have a huge wait list for cars, and huge numbers of people who are willing to pay for cars without testing them this makes sense. My response to your question is "Why should I (a preorder customer) pay a premium for Tesla's business model that allows YOU to do a test drive?" Until the demand of the wait list customers has been fulfilled, catering to the HARD SELL customer is actually making my experience worse and more expensive.
Torwald 8y ago
What I like about this on a strategic level, it opens up opportunities to (later) have a whole sub-economy of dealerships who offer additional services. Everybody can order online directly, but if you want to be the middleman you may can, but you have to earn it. Everybody with a good idea for a store can compete.
cmurf 8y ago
The delivery fee is refunded? If not it's a $1200 test drive. If you have to finance the car, your lender will not refund any initiation, application, or early termination fees. So again it's not a free test drive. Not the same thing. Free for Tesla, maybe, not the consumer.
thisisit 8y ago
Cars are a high value purchase for many people. So "online only" is bold as well as fraught with many potential issues. Though on that point I hope they don't go the extra mile of savings by going "email only" support that companies like Google, Uber etc do.
cyptus 8y ago
you are lucky with two months. in germany it took me over 2.5 years with a lawsuit to return a new car which did had a water lack also after 3 repairs.
_pmf_ 8y ago
> Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores Who needs repairs? Just buy a new one; it's cheap and easy.
dalbasal 8y ago
With pay-as-u-go rental apps/services becoming reasonably common, it might be worthwhile leaning on this to take care of test driving. Similarly priced cars here go for €10 an hour. I'd try it just for curiosity, and I have no immediate intentions of purchasing a Tesla (or anything). If you are looking at the iron-ore-2-consumer chain of auto manufacturing for meaningful savings, it's hard to ignore the factory-2-consumer steps. Ultimately, that's a useful efficiency. Now... "cutting out the middle-man" has a history of being much harder than it looks. You'll be following a well ridden path lined with skeletons. Just look at the factory-2-consumer markups on food, clothes... Still... I think it's worth trying. If test drives are the bottleneck, it should be solveable somehow.

ww520 8y ago

Does that circumvent some state laws that demand selling cars through dealerships? Also does Tesla still have Tesla branded "service shop" to do car delivery/return/refund/service?

BenoitEssiambre 8y ago
"At the same time, we will be increasing our investment in the Tesla service system, with the goal of same-day, if not same-hour service, and with most service done by us coming to you, rather than you coming to us. Moreover, we guarantee service availability anywhere in any countries in which we operate."
- heyyyouu 8y ago
  While service is an issue, the bigger issue right now is repairs after an accident or other, bigger problems that can't be fixed in a "daily visit on site".There are people waiting three to six months for repairs: https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/why-does-it-take-months-repair-tesla https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/why-does-it-take-month... https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/repair-time-6-months.112515/ https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/repair-time-6-months... https://www.driving.co.uk/news/features/tesla-owners-facing-extended-wait-repairs/ https://www.driving.co.uk/news/features/tesla-owners-facing-... https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tesla-owners-fume-about-delays-for-service-13112104.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Tesla-owners-fu... My boss had to wait more than three months this past fall after his accident, and he was making payments the entire time (of course) --- they have not fixed this problem. And no, most insurance will not cover a loaner for this period of time.

BoorishBears 8y ago

“Courageous” If anyone has ever had to cancel a car sale you’ll realize how much of a hassle it truely is to “return a car” Your credit report will show a loan even after it’s been cancelled for weeks. I once cancelled financing for a car due to it not being as described. Started looking for a new car and found it. Got denied for a loan because my score showed a 60k loan with 0 payments made. It took almost 2 months to fully remove it from my report and start with a clean state In summary, Tesla is essentially saying “you can’t test drive it but if you don’t like it you can cancel your car search for a few months and ding your credit score for nothing” This is like mattress stores that give you a “free trial”, they know the resistance to actually doing ending your “trial” is crazy high

Dylan16807 8y ago
This is very good advice to keep in mind, but it's not Tesla's fault if the credit reporting agencies are terrible.
- gowld 8y ago
  It's not Tesla's "fault", but it's cutting corners in a bizarre way for the auto sales industry. I don't want to risk $35K+taxes/fees and get an Aldi shopping experience.
- BoorishBears 8y ago
  I think they both deserve credit, in reality returning a 30 thousand dollar object is never going to be smooth. The finance has already written you a check, they’ve already done all this leg work. You’ve already driven it, if you’re purchasing it in earnest you might have already invested in charging infrastructure for your home, a whole laundry list of friction. Then there’s what happens to the car you returned. I wouldn’t want to be the guy stuck with a car that went through multiple 1000 mile “test drives” with Tesla’s reconditioning track record of delivering cars with toe nail clippings in the seat rails (traditional dealers do have offers like this from time to time, but it’s exceedingly rare they’ll actually let you keep the car for more than a few hours, and most importantly they don’t require you to buy the car first, they’ll take a deposit or let you rent the car)

sethammons 8y ago

I would never buy something without a test drive. No level of return policy will be good enough.

joshe 8y ago
Does saving $2,100 help?
- cududa 8y ago
  Not really if I have no idea what I’m buying?
  - artursapek 8y ago
    Rent it for a couple days on Turo. I did that recently with a Model 3 just to try it out.
    - sneak 8y ago
      Turo refused to rent to me because I don’t have any recent US driving/insurance history for their insurance scoring. Never had a problem at any other normal car rental place.
    - tedivm 8y ago
      So now we have to pay for test drives?
      - ghostbrainalpha 8y ago
        I don't think this model makes sense for the long term. Eventually there will be enough competition that Tesla will need to go through an actual Sales/Marketing process like every other product. But as long as they have a huge wait list for cars, and huge numbers of people who are willing to pay for cars without testing them this makes sense. My response to your question is "Why should I (a preorder customer) pay a premium for Tesla's business model that allows YOU to do a test drive?" Until the demand of the wait list customers has been fulfilled, catering to the HARD SELL customer is actually making my experience worse and more expensive.

Torwald 8y ago

What I like about this on a strategic level, it opens up opportunities to (later) have a whole sub-economy of dealerships who offer additional services. Everybody can order online directly, but if you want to be the middleman you may can, but you have to earn it. Everybody with a good idea for a store can compete.

cmurf 8y ago

The delivery fee is refunded? If not it's a $1200 test drive. If you have to finance the car, your lender will not refund any initiation, application, or early termination fees. So again it's not a free test drive. Not the same thing. Free for Tesla, maybe, not the consumer.

thisisit 8y ago

Cars are a high value purchase for many people. So "online only" is bold as well as fraught with many potential issues. Though on that point I hope they don't go the extra mile of savings by going "email only" support that companies like Google, Uber etc do.

cyptus 8y ago

you are lucky with two months. in germany it took me over 2.5 years with a lawsuit to return a new car which did had a water lack also after 3 repairs.

_pmf_ 8y ago

> Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores Who needs repairs? Just buy a new one; it's cheap and easy.

dalbasal 8y ago

With pay-as-u-go rental apps/services becoming reasonably common, it might be worthwhile leaning on this to take care of test driving. Similarly priced cars here go for €10 an hour. I'd try it just for curiosity, and I have no immediate intentions of purchasing a Tesla (or anything). If you are looking at the iron-ore-2-consumer chain of auto manufacturing for meaningful savings, it's hard to ignore the factory-2-consumer steps. Ultimately, that's a useful efficiency. Now... "cutting out the middle-man" has a history of being much harder than it looks. You'll be following a well ridden path lined with skeletons. Just look at the factory-2-consumer markups on food, clothes... Still... I think it's worth trying. If test drives are the bottleneck, it should be solveable somehow.