Big changes are ahead for Tesla with the upcoming massive increase in the number of vehicles in its fleet due to the launch of the Model 3. Additional Superchargers, Service Centers, sales reps and other infrastructure will be needed to support the new fleet.
With a backlog over 400,000 reservations and a planned production rate of 5,000 cars per week by the end of the year, even the process of delivering the Model 3 could take an incredible amount of work hours and ultimately crowd the stores and service centers.
CEO Elon Musk apparently has a solution and plans to significantly reduce the time it takes for new customers to take delivery.
As we reported yesterday, Musk held a conference call with investors interested in the new capital raise and convertible notes that Tesla is issuing.
The call wasn’t made public, but an investor who participated gave Electrek a breakdown of the main points brought up by the two executives during the call. We reported yesterday about Musk confirming that Tesla Model 3 ‘release candidates’ are currently being built.
He also elaborated on the company’s ideas to streamline the delivery process for the Model 3. Last month, he said that Tesla doesn’t plan to invest in “stores” in the short-term because they don’t think they will need to create demand for the vehicle, but they plan to invest in deliveries:
“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.”
During the call yesterday, Musk added that they plan for the process to be reduced from an hour to about 5 minutes.
They plan to not only send the instructional videos ahead of time but also the paperwork, which again should be simpler. New customers could be in and out in minutes with their new car.
It should result in a better experience for new owners, but Musk said that Tesla also plans to build more dedicated delivery centers in metro areas with high demand for the Model 3. Those locations wouldn’t even necessarily offer service (maintenance and repairs), but they would instead focus on the delivery process and remove the task from local stores and service centers.
It’s one of several new or expanding service initiatives that Tesla has been introducing lately ahead of the launch of the Model 3. For example, Tesla’s Rangers has been expanding and got a new look, now called ‘Tesla Mobile Service’.
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