New Car Dealers Up In Arms Over Tesla's Online Only Sales Model

Can't afford to have them and can't afford not to have them...just saying.

Of course verybody who planned to buy one end of 2018 did so and did not let it slip into 2018.
And the shiploads of T3 going to Europe and China did not show up in January, only some in February and „surprisingly“ not in sthe US statistics.
But, guess what, there is a world behind the wall, and Tesla are selling there.

(And it is not Elons fault that he had to bring forwarf the Chinese Gigafactory becaus of the trade war started by his orangeness.)

Tesla's crisis management business plan = throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.

This retail store closure idea is half-baked, though I guess it means Tesla is not planning on filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy any time soon.

In the scheme of things, retail store leases are not that expensive and he can just cut the hours and number of employees to quickly cut costs (without making a big announcement that would catch the attention of state regulators) then repudiate the leases in bankruptcy.

Tesla's most definitely do not sell themselves at this point.

"Bankwuptcy any time soon" say the critics

For a full story, see chronology of Tesla demise linked below:

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/03/04/a-short-history-of-tesla-critics-claims/

Cutting prices while the competition looms on the horizon is not a good strategy. If anything, more formidable competition from Audi, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz will mean less marketshare for Tesla. In that scenario,Tesla should raise prices to make up for the volume decline. In Tesla's situation, volume will drop and prices have too. That creates a lower price, lower volume, lower margin situation. We all know what that means for a company and it isn't good.

Tesla has to sell a certain number of EVs to be economically feasible. It is also their mission statement to accelerate the advent of EVs, so while I also prefer Tesla vehicles to be special, their ultimate objective is to make transportation appliances.

Raising prices because you are loosing sales to a competitor only accelerates your decline. The answer is to provide the market with a quality product at a competitive price...its a value proposition especially when its the second largest purchase consumers ever make, after their homes. Tesla is cutting prices because it no longer offers reasonable value for the buck against its competition.

There is more competition, loss of rebates vs. that competition, and criticism for not hitting that base point. Lots of reasons. Overall, happy they are making this change. The stores were great for marketing, but I would rather they be service centers.

Car dealers are whining cry babies. They resists any and all changes as they attempt to monopolize the car market and control the buying public.

Tesla just moved to a much larger dealer near me months ago. I am sure the owner is unhappy about this announcement.
This is a reaction the the sales drop. And the Model Why announcement is planned to raise cash by dupping more sycophants from their money.

What owner of what Tesla ldealership“?
You do not know what you are talking about.

In other news...water is wet.

Car makers should offer factory pickup and cut the delivery plus dealer markup off the prices. New car dealerships RIP.

Dealers are NOT "up in arms". About 30% of our sales at our locations are internet sales.

If car dealers are allowed to sell over the internet, so should Tesla directly. Laws requiring franchised dealers are antiquated. Automakers should be able to sell vehicles however they want with the caveat that they can provide adequate repair service to customers in the areas they chose to sell vehicles.

One of the things that the average 'stealership' hater refuses to understand is a brick and mortar location to sell and service new and pre-owned vehicles is a large investment with a very low ROI. The amount of money it takes to stock, floorplan, purchase service equipment and train service/sales (well maybe not so much salespeople, they are programmed ;-D ) personnel is staggering. All so they can make a profit (Gasp!). Also the number of people who are employed and are affected by the dealership (think other local businesses) is much larger than you might think.

I don’t disagree that dealerships are expensive to run, and the customer ends up paying these costs with very marginal benefits from the sales side of a dealership. A direct sales model with factory owned or contracted service facilities is a more efficient system moving forward. The existing players can’t do this because of their franchise agreements, Yes there are a lot of people employed by dealerships, but the same can be said of robots in manufacturing and many other innovations.

Radio Shack.