Here's a suspicion I find intriguing...

We owners of EVs, PHEVs, and Prius have many bad memories of dealerships. We are also independently minded to 'do it ourself.' We often got our cars in spite of dealers.

In General Electric, we used to ask, "What is our value added engineering?" This is the question future EV dealers have to figure out. IMHO, offering 24x7, fast DC charging would be a great start. Starting a side business of installing and maintaining L2 stations would be another great way to keep the service department open. But passively waiting for a broken EV doesn't work.

Bob Wilson
 
One of the things I like about dealerships is competition. I have both a Subaru and Hyundai car, with about 7 or 8 dealers each within a 45 min drive of where I live. That gives me a lot of choice about where I buy and where I get it serviced. If they are not competitive they go out of business. As a result, I have had great service and pricing from my dealers over the years. They even compete with the after market shops, and will even source a used part for an older vehicle (starters, alternators, etc) if you want. I have had that, with great savings.

My son has a Tesla, and until recently only 1 service centre, now 2, where he could take it. He had to book weeks, and even months one time to get something fixed. And it was very expensive. Plus no negotiation with Tesla, they are in full control of all pricing, and their inventory availability. It's crazy what he had to pay for simple accessories, like a roof rack, and extra set of wheels (for winter tires). I don't like that, when I have to pay through the nose.
 
Tesla should be classified as a premium brand so it's fair to charge a premium for parts and service. It's a drop in the bucket compared to Vancouver single detached housing prices averaging $1.4M USD.
 
I don't like Tesla labor rates and some things they won't do. But I was able to access their technical information pages and replace passenger side wheel bearings. No complaint about the quality of parts and I kinda liked the challenge.

Bob Wilson
 
teslarati97 said:
Tesla should be classified as a premium brand so it's fair to charge a premium for parts and service. It's a drop in the bucket compared to Vancouver single detached housing prices averaging $1.4M USD.
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Yes, housing is expensive here. But we also have the highest gas prices in North America, which is another reason EVs are so popular here.
 
R P said:
Yes, housing is expensive here. But we also have the highest gas prices in North America, which is another reason EVs are so popular here.
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Those BC fuel taxes are what helps support the transit system! It's 18.5 cents/L for BC transit plus 6.75 cents/L for motor fuel provincial tax and 1.75/ cents/L for provincial levy...plus the current carbon tax of 9.96 cents/L. The good thing is that BC electricity is almost completely renewable (natural gas is about 1%) so true net zero is possible!
 
Yup, we have an abundance of hydro power, and more on the way. Good place to use EVs. Unfortunately, I am just in the process of selling my Kona EV, and will be EV-less for a while. But our other car, Crosstrek, is pretty cheap on fuel, so not too big a hit.
 
Nice conspiracy, but nope.

However they are starving the market of cheaper less profitable models in favor of more profitable models wherever possible.
 
gooki said:
. . . starving the market of cheaper less profitable models in favor of more profitable models wherever possible.
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I ran into this in 2010 when Toyota would only sell their driver assistance on the most expensive trim, $8,000, and charge $2,000 for the option. I declined but later I got a Prius Prime with TSS-P only to discover lane keeping was an alert and the nudge would exhibit rapidly increasing oscillations.

Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
We often got our cars in spite of dealers.
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Yup - I had to fight with dealers to get information on a Leaf when I first decided to go electric - I knew more about the car than the sales folks did, and had to remind them I couldn't use the service plans that the other Nissan cars might benefit from.
 
Auto manufacturers make their money through their OEM replacement parts and financial services. Depending on the manufacturer/vehicle, there is anywhere from a 4% to 20% markup on the dealer invoice price and MSRP. I'd imagine that there's simply a shortage of parts so the higher margin vehicle/trims get priority (also if you pay for Tesla's full self driving).

The traditional dealership model utilizes the parts and service department as the main profit driver so that the dealership can break even with zero car (new and used) sales. Building an EV factory is not cheap, and much harder for legacy manufacturers if they haven't recouped their capital investment on their current ICE platforms. It's going to come down to who can secure the raw materials next!
 
teslarati97 said:
harder for legacy manufacturers if they haven't recouped their capital investment on their current ICE platforms.
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I don't believe there a single legacy automaker that hasn't recuperated their ICE car production facilities. I haven't heard of anybody building a new car factory for ICE cars in years (admitting that might just be me).

They are whining because they won't have their billion dollar profits if they invest in new technology. [emoji2962]

But that's ok. If they don't want to invest, they'll be gone in a few years time.

Guess why they invent these EV platforms that they share. Because it'll save money and is smart. They are not dumb, they just whine so politicians feel sorry about them and keep giving them incentives.

Anybody who believes anything else is naiv.
 
bwilson4web said:
Toyota in Madison County.
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A $2.3bn Toyota+Mazda plant right in your backyard!

Meanwhile in 2021, Tesla plunked down another $7.7bn for all their gigafactories (Berlin + Texas, and new Shanghai tooling) while financing an additional $8.87bn ($14.62bn paid down and $8.87bn new debt in 2021).
 
bwilson4web said:
Toyota in Madison County.
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Yeah, funny. Well, Toyota and Mazda. The two companies that deny EVs are a thing. Actually proves my point why Toyota is crying EVs are prohibitively expensive to build. They bet on the wrong horse and now, instead of taking responsibility lobby against EVs. [emoji2962]
 
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