EZZ

You are not understanding...the dealers have to make a profit to run a business. This in turn either lowers Tesla profits if the prices are held constant to the consumer OR Tesla sells the cars to the dealers at the current prices and the dealers mark up the cars costing the CONSUMER more. One of these dynamics have to play out. If the dealerships and Tesla both run service centers at the same cost, then the requirement of the dealership to have profits leeches profit out of this economic framework. This lowers the value to Tesla overall as the dealers are required to make money. I hope you understand this.

mmarshall

I am not the issue here. I'm not the one that keeps losing money. I'm only stating why Tesla itself is continuing to do so.

This video is a little dated, but gives a good picture of why the company, even today, is going through so much cash, and how investors are basically propping it up.

EZZ

You keep arguing that Tesla needs to go sell to 3rd party franchisers to remain in business and i'm trying to explain to you the economic framework why that isn't necessarily a good idea. I'm not arguing on whether Tesla is losing money. My responses are directly aimed at this notion of yours that 3rd party franchisers are the key to their recovery.

LeX2K

You've been using strong language and are emphatic Tesla is being hurt badly by running their own showrooms and service centers. I'm not accusing you of anything only going by what you've said.
That's not how business works, the totality of profits/losses are what is in play here and that is what you say is badly hurting Tesla's financials. If Tesla is losing money running the dealership model internally then suppose there were 500 Tesla dealers all independently owned. According to you the only way on average for all those dealers to make money is drastically increase the sticker price of a Tesla and the overall cost of ownership after the sale. Now if all those dealers use the same business model as Tesla does now, according to you all those dealers will lose huge amounts of money. Ergo, those dealers will have to charge much more for the same services vs. Tesla.

Now perhaps you think Tesla is running their showrooms and service centers extremely poorly and wasting money hand over fist, and you think the independent dealers can do a much more efficient job? That's the only way I can see why you think Tesla is taking such a bath running their own showrooms/service centers.
Every auto company has challenges, the VW group just got dinged for billions why is Tesla supposed to be immune to challenges? GM and Chrysler went bankrupt, Nissan has suffered serious quality problems since the Fiat fiasco. I could go on and on.
Given Tesla started from literally nothing to being a mainstream BEV maker I'd say they've done extremely well. It's almost like you are trying to find reasons as to why Tesla is doomed.

mmarshall

LOL. What I have been using is not strong language....at least not by Internet standards. Believe me, there are forums (and comment-sections) where people DO use strong language. Here, Dave and the moderators effectively enforce rules against it....this forum, in contrast, is like a group of lambs.


The ones I've seen can't even be called that....they are warehouses. But, of course, I admit I have not seen all the Tesla shops....only a few.



True, but you'll notice that Nissan and Chrysler got bought out by other companies. Who actually wants to buy Tesla? I may be wrong, but, as I recall, since Apple's 2013 offer (which Musk turned down), nobody wants to touch them....at least in their present form.

Oh, there's no question that they build the most advanced all-electric vehicles on the planet. The Tesla 3's powertrain impressed me like nothing else I've driven in years...and is clearly not a car for careless or inattentive drivers. But, IMO, they would have done even better with a more conventional network.

Hey, I don't know if Tesla is ultimately doomed or not.....I don't have a crystal ball (and crystal ***** are against my religion) . But one thing seems obvious.....Tesla will go on as long as the investors and the intense hype/publicity the company gets keeps drawing in the gravy train from investors. That compensates for the dollar-drain from questionable business practices.

With all due respect (and I'm not trying to be rude or evasive).....I think you and I have covered this issue enough. I'm going to relax here and give some other people a chance.