Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced via Twitter yesterday that the company will open a lot of service centers in 2019, a crucial step to address the fast-growing Model 3 customer base in North America and worldwide.
Tesla has been very slow in improving its service capacity and the company had been found wanting on more than several occasions, especially in overseas markets.
After a series of media reports detailing Tesla’s service delays in Norway, CEO Elon Musk stepped in and accepted that Tesla needs to expand its service facilities in the country.
He said, “Norwegians are right to be upset with Tesla. We are having trouble expanding our service facilities in Oslo especially. Can solve quickly with Tesla mobile service vans, but awaiting govt permission to do so”.
The Sunday Times reported in March that Tesla owners are facing an extended wait for repairs in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times quoted Tesla staff saying, “We have to wait for parts to be shipped from California and it sometimes takes a long time,”
Even in North America, Tesla service still looks a bit stretched and the company has been trying to improve its service capacity.
Tesla’s then President of Global Sales and Service Jon McNeill, wrote to customers on Tesla Owners club forum in March 2017 that “Tesla owners will get the service they expect from us — period.”
Jon McNeill blamed thirty party run body shops for taking far too long to repair. “We’re also going to increase our approved shop count by 300 over the next few weeks as well as eliminating poor performing shops,” he wrote.
Tesla is not the first company to face service delays and it won’t be the last. But the electric car maker has plenty of work to do if it wants to keep its growing pool of customers happy.
The company plans to bring most collision repairs in-house because third-party firms are driving Tesla owners and the company crazy, says CEO Elon Musk.
At the end of the third quarter, Tesla had just 351 store and service locations and 373 mobile service vehicles. When compared against 440,000 Tesla vehicles on the road, the service capacity looks thin and needs a massive upgrade.
In Q3-2018, Tesla opened four new store and service centers, while opening 44 supercharger locations.
Maybe, Tesla needs to swap those numbers for a while, open more service centers and less supercharging stations, at least till its service capacity improves.
During Q3, we opened four new store and service locations, resulting in 351 locations worldwide at the end of the quarter. Our electrified Mobile Service fleet continued to grow further to more than 373 service vehicles on the road at the end of Q3.
Since body repairs have been one of the major drawbacks for our customers, we have started to roll out our own body shops in the US. Thus far, we have opened several body shops in the highest density areas and are planning to open dozens more in the next few quarters.
– Tesla Q3-18 Shareholder letter
Tesla run body shops are slowly growing in numbers. It’s a small list, hopefully, we will see a lot more cities added to the list in 2019.
Tesla Body Repair Centers available for collision repair in the following cities
- San Jose, California
- Pomona, California
Tesla Body Repair Centers are available for light collision repair in the following cities.
- Bellevue, Washington
- Dallas, Texas
- Eatonville, Florida
- Houston, Texas
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Marietta, Georgia
- Owings Mills, Maryland
- Van Nuys, California
- Villa Park, Illinois
