Faye Sunderland at TheGreenCarWebsite writes an interesting piece on Tesla's plans to create a direct retail and charging model: You've got to admire Tesla's determination to hog the headlines. This week, the Californian start-up is making waves by challenging the automotive establishment in the US.
The electric car maker wants to cut out the middleman and sell its products directly to consumers rather than take the traditional dealer approach. It's reason for this? Well, the firm's co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, traditional dealers might not be the best advocates for electric cars.
According to Reuters, Musk criticised the traditional dealer model, while speaking firm's annual shareholders meeting, saying: "It didn't work for Fisker, didn't work for Coda. In the last 90 years, when did it work? We have to do this directly."
However his plans to control the distribution network is encountering problems. Most US states don't allow carmakers to sell their models directly and a move to overturn this has already failed in Texas last month, with strong resistance from dealer lobby groups.
Nonetheless, the Californian firm is expected to expand its retail stores from 34 to 50 stores in the US by the end of the year, as sales of its seven seat Model S electric car continue to grow. With the electric saloon expected to arrive in Europe later this summer, Tesla expects to bring its independent approach over here too, with plans to open a showrooms in major cities including London expected to be announced soon.
As big as Porsche
As Tesla recorded its first ever quarterly profit in the first three months of this year, following the launch of the Model S late last year, giving the company's share price a boost; near tripling in value. Commenting on this, Musk said yesterday that the company's gross margins could approach those of Porsche 'over time'.
That's not all that is firm is attracting media attention over. Its recent announcement that it is to triple its network of superchargers in the States by the end of the month is also raising questions about it is more interested in being an owner and operator of charging infrastructure.
As big as Chevron?
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the move to install more Superchargers won't just make sense in the short-term to help sell its Model S, but in the long-term, could ensure that the firm becomes the default network operator for all electric cars in the US. With the firm already selling its electric drivetrain technology to firms such as Mercedes and Toyota, the Wall St Journal suggests, that for the right price, Tesla could also sell access to its Superchargers too.
At the moment, only Tesla's Model S is compatible with the Superchargers, but with a recharge of 20 minutes able to deliver a range of around 200 miles-much more than another other system currently available-it is easy to understand why other carmakers might want to access to both this recharging network and the compatible technology.
As the blog in the Wall St Journal puts it; having control of the recharging infrastructure could be much more valuable to the firm than the cars themselves, in the same way that it has been more profitable to be Chevron than GM during the era of petrol cars.
The electric car maker wants to cut out the middleman and sell its products directly to consumers rather than take the traditional dealer approach. It's reason for this? Well, the firm's co-founder and CEO, Elon Musk, traditional dealers might not be the best advocates for electric cars.
According to Reuters, Musk criticised the traditional dealer model, while speaking firm's annual shareholders meeting, saying: "It didn't work for Fisker, didn't work for Coda. In the last 90 years, when did it work? We have to do this directly."
However his plans to control the distribution network is encountering problems. Most US states don't allow carmakers to sell their models directly and a move to overturn this has already failed in Texas last month, with strong resistance from dealer lobby groups.
Nonetheless, the Californian firm is expected to expand its retail stores from 34 to 50 stores in the US by the end of the year, as sales of its seven seat Model S electric car continue to grow. With the electric saloon expected to arrive in Europe later this summer, Tesla expects to bring its independent approach over here too, with plans to open a showrooms in major cities including London expected to be announced soon.
As big as Porsche
As Tesla recorded its first ever quarterly profit in the first three months of this year, following the launch of the Model S late last year, giving the company's share price a boost; near tripling in value. Commenting on this, Musk said yesterday that the company's gross margins could approach those of Porsche 'over time'.
That's not all that is firm is attracting media attention over. Its recent announcement that it is to triple its network of superchargers in the States by the end of the month is also raising questions about it is more interested in being an owner and operator of charging infrastructure.
As big as Chevron?
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the move to install more Superchargers won't just make sense in the short-term to help sell its Model S, but in the long-term, could ensure that the firm becomes the default network operator for all electric cars in the US. With the firm already selling its electric drivetrain technology to firms such as Mercedes and Toyota, the Wall St Journal suggests, that for the right price, Tesla could also sell access to its Superchargers too.
At the moment, only Tesla's Model S is compatible with the Superchargers, but with a recharge of 20 minutes able to deliver a range of around 200 miles-much more than another other system currently available-it is easy to understand why other carmakers might want to access to both this recharging network and the compatible technology.
As the blog in the Wall St Journal puts it; having control of the recharging infrastructure could be much more valuable to the firm than the cars themselves, in the same way that it has been more profitable to be Chevron than GM during the era of petrol cars.
