First look at Tesla’s new ‘delivery center’ concept and ‘group delivery’ service

As we reported last month, Tesla is trying new ideas to deliver vehicles faster in order to prepare for the expected increase in deliveries with the upcoming launch of the Model 3. One of those ideas is to open dedicated delivery centers separated from the stores and service centers.

Tesla recently opened one of those delivery centers in Culver City and we take our first look through a report from one of our readers.

CEO Elon Musk said last month that Tesla plans to invest more in the delivery process in an attempt to bring the time down to just 5 minutes:

“The delivery of the cars is where the investment is needed. We need to deliver three or four times as many cars. But we don’t want to have three or four times as many delivery centers. How do we make that delivery process more streamlined, less paperwork, less bureaucracy and get people really ahead of time with really well-produced instruction videos for how to use their car. And well, of course, the best instruction is like not having instructions. And you will actually be able to play all of the instructions needed for your car on your car.”

There’s still a need for the actual physical delivery and the new delivery centers seem to cover that. The company is apparently still trying out the concept and the one in Culver City is in a 30,000 square-feet space normally only rented out for events.

The building, which is owned by a company called 3labs, is located at 8461 Warner Drive, Culver City:

Tesla took over the location last month just in time for the end of the quarter delivery rush. The delivery center covers deliveries for Tesla’s Centinela and Van Nuys locations.

A local Model S owner and Electrek reader, @teslams60 on Twitter, visited the location last week and gave us a rundown of the place with some pictures.

Here’s the parking lot of the building:

There were several Model S and Model X available for direct sale and delivery on location.

There are two delivery areas inside with a seating area between for customers. The look of the building itself is similar to Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, which the company used in the past to hold events.

The lounge area is used for orientation in a new concept of “group delivery” where Tesla schedules several deliveries at the same time and give all new owners orientation in one session.

As Musk mentioned, Tesla is also working on instructional material to send ahead of the delivery in order to facilitate the whole process.

More delivery centers like this one are reportedly planned in other large metro areas where Tesla’s stores and service centers are already extremely busy.