Elon Musk and Tesla might not seem too concerned with their dealerships being ranked last in how well they sell cars. But we can imagine that a last place finish in quality of service is a cause for concern for the California automaker.Norway has been adopting electric cars at a very high rate, hybrid and electric vehicles made up more than half of new cars sales last year. So the country is a good looking glass for what other countries can expect from the EV landscape in the future.
As of now Tesla will have another problem to tackle in Norway and potentially the world. Tesla customers are waiting an extraordinarily long time to get their cars serviced. One example comes from owner Tor Havard Wiig:
After a fender-bender with his Tesla Model S last February, Tor Havard Wiig figured he’d be back on the road within a week or two. Five months on, he’s still waiting on parts—and he’s ready to sell the two-year-old car.
It’s great that Tesla is ironing out its production kinks and is selling its cars at a rapid rate. But now they have to shift some of those efforts into making sure that the customers of their $60,000+ vehicles remain happy. A five month wait for a fender is truly unacceptable.
Thankfully Musk has said that Norwegians have every right to be upset, but he puts the blame on Norwegian authorities for not acting fast enough to green light a plan to send repair technicians to customer’s homes. While talks have taken place, officials state that Tesla has still not filed a formal application for mobile service centers.
Norwegians are right to be upset with Tesla. We are having trouble expanding our service facilities in Oslo especially. Can solve quickly with Tesla mobile service vans, but awaiting govt permission to do so.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 5, 2018
Tesla says that a new repair shop will be opened in Oslo by the end of the year and they are continuing to hire more technicians as we write this. So it’s good to see that effort is being put and some people might attribute this to “growing pains”. But soon Tesla won’t be viewed as an underdog anymore and will be seen as a full-fledged automaker where things like this won’t really be accepted.
It’s a worrying prospect for Tesla. Very soon the likes of Mercedes, Audi, and BMW will release their fully electric cars backed by an established and dealership and service center infrastructure. It will be very important for Tesla to not misstep in other countries and hinder the customer experience.
What do you guys think? Do you think Tesla will be able to deliver a good service experience in other countries as they sell more cars? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: Bloomberg
