An important part of any car ownership is servicing. With Tesla already having produced hundreds of thousands of Model 3 vehicles it’s not surprising that their current service centres are a bit over booked. But how many Tesla Service Centers are there exactly and can we expect more?
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How Many And Where Are They?
There are Tesla Service Centers all over the world. Most of them are located in America and Europe. This is because Tesla knows exactly where their cars are sold. As such they can coordinate the service center roll out to the exact location of their purchased vehicles.
This means they ensure the service centers are built close to their customers. They also know how many cars are in which areas too. So if the number is growing too high they open more centers.
You can search for one near you on Tesla’s website here. Simply go to that link, type in your address and make sure the “Service Centers” button down the bottom is the only one selected. There is also a written list here ordered by country.
Future Expansions
Tesla also knows that with the Model 3 they’ll need a lot more service centers. As such they’ve made a global commitment to ramp up their numbers. This includes:
- A 40% increase in North America service coverage this year
- 3 times more service capacity worldwide
- 100 new Service Centers
- 1400 new technicians
- 350+ new Mobile Service vans
That’s a big expansion! However when you’re going from producing around <100,000 cars per year to 500,000+ cars per year will it be enough? One of the big parts of taking a Tesla to a service center though is that most of time, you don’t.
You Likely Won’t Use Tesla Service Centers
Source: sandramays.com
According to Tesla, 80% of car repairs can now be done outside of a traditional Service Center. This is because Tesla unlike traditional car companies has a few tricks up it’s sleeve.
One of the major benefits is their Over The Air (OTA) software updates. These can be pushed out either via Wi-Fi or LTE and downloaded directly to the car. As such, you don’t need to take your car to the service center to update maps or fix software bugs.
It also helps to keep the software modern and secure which is becoming increasingly important. Given how much of a car these days can be controlled remotely security is a huge priority. Software engineers can’t ever write 100% perfect software so if a security flaw is found, Tesla can patch it within hours. Over the whole worldwide fleet.
Remote Diagnostics
The second trick Tesla’s have is their on board diagnostics and remote monitoring. This enables Tesla’s to not only detect errors that the cars having but to relay that info back to Tesla. They can then analyse the error report and proactively fix the issue.
If they can’t fix it remotely then they at least know exactly what’s wrong and what’s needed to fix it. They can then setup a mobile repair van to come out or schedule a visit as a final resort.
An Added Tesla Bonus
On top of all these benefits Tesla Service Centers have one other amazing trump card. They’re not out to make money.
Yes, you read that right. While traditional car companies main cash cow is their servicing and parts, Tesla has gone the opposite way. It makes a lot of sense too when you think about it.
With car companies biggest income source being servicing they then tend to try and optimize it. This leads to them building poorer quality cars that break down sooner. It also leads to inflated replacement part prices and higher service charges. This means people resist servicing their car as much as possible. Which in turn leads to greater damage from not fixing the initial problem.
Overall the companies and customers goals are not aligned and you get a horrible customer experience. People hate getting their car serviced because it costs heaps. They know they’re being ripped off because they’re not stupid and delay it, fix it themselves or go somewhere else. It’s another case of traditional car companies being intentionally hostile to their customer.
The Tesla Way
Instead Tesla aligns their goals with the customers goals. The goal is to fix the car, provide the best and easiest service and at the cheapest cost possible.
This is why you can make a booking from inside your car on the touch screen. Have faults diagnosed automatically and remotely. Get a mobile van to come out to you and fix the issue on site. All the while it costing as little as Tesla can make it cost.
But what proof do we have that Tesla isn’t secretly fleecing their service customers? Well it shows that they walk the walk in their financials.
If you look at their “Services and other” revenue and cost of revenues line they all but cancel each other out. This proves that they are explicitly running their service centers to basically not make money. Quite the new business model!
Have you been to a Tesla Service Center? How was your experience and did it cost less than normal? Let us know in the comments below!
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