> Plus Tesla still has trouble with parts and service. The company is twenty years old now. They should have that figured out.
I think there's more nuance to this. It seems much more that, to Elon, every part sitting on a shelf for parts availability, repair and service is a part that's not on the production line going on a vehicle to increase the almighty quarterly numbers.
Tesla -could- solve this tomorrow, but the Boss Man doesn't care. He has your money, and he wants to sell you another one, not repair yours.
The reason he's doing it is that ... it costs a lot of money to provide adequate service for the millions of cars they sold. It's much cheaper to just not do it.
Agreed. They've done the hard part, make and sell cars. Ride the gravy train. Money printer: someone at a service desk + small logistics problems.
It's usually most optimal to stop fucking around. Gadget stores don't keep us nerds around for our winning personalities, everyone benefits from service.
I have heard so much about how electric cars are close to zero maintenance. I suspect they want to ride that wave as long as possible to further that perception.
That might be true but tire rotations and cabin air filter replacements are still high profit. I think it might be more that a large percentage of electric car repairs are for items covered under warranty so until there is a sizable used fleet outside of warranty they want to minimize claims by making it hard to do.
It's surprising that Waymo is doing OK in a service business. All those cars have to be stored, recharged, and cleaned. Somewhere there's probably someone that didn't come from Google in charge of that.
I think there's more nuance to this. It seems much more that, to Elon, every part sitting on a shelf for parts availability, repair and service is a part that's not on the production line going on a vehicle to increase the almighty quarterly numbers.
Tesla -could- solve this tomorrow, but the Boss Man doesn't care. He has your money, and he wants to sell you another one, not repair yours.