If the electric car is a hot topic in US, it could be even bigger globally if someone gets the economics right and makes a pure electric vehicle a real alternative to the combustion engine.
During our trip we visited the most talked about contender that has been claimed to be the future of car industry, Tesla Motors. I talked to Rachel Konrad, Senior Communications Manager at Tesla, in length about the car itself, the future of the industry and most interestingly is Tesla’s business model really working and making real profits for its visionary founders and investors.
I also asked about when Tesla is coming to the Nordic and Baltic countries and heard that they are already here. For example, last year people in Denmark bought a total of 92 new two-seat sports cars in the price range of a Tesla Roadster. Tesla sold 10 Roadsters in the same period in Denmark – This makes a rough sports car market share of 10 percent! Even thought the market for
An interesting and significant part of Tesla’s business model, which is many times over looked, is how Tesla runs its dealerships. Instead of being set up like most car dealerships as franchise, they keep tight control of the dealerships and run them themselves to guarantee the best possible brand experience and make sure the customer satisfaction is high. Tesla has modeled the stores on the much hyped Apple Stores. Equally interesting is to notice that where roughly more than 50% of the revenues for a normal car dealership comes from repair and maintenance, none of this applies to Tesla. It’s not that often you need to change the oils for a pure electric vehicle. This many times over looked detail consequentially changes the economics of the electric vehicle business radically. See the below video for more.