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EV buyers not exactly happy with dealership experience

If Tesla Motors chief Elon Musk was an I-told-you-so type of guy, here's his chance to do so. It turns out that plug-in vehicle buyers are generally less satisfied with their dealership experience than conventional-vehicle buyers. And the dealers themselves don't like the process much, either. So says a study from the University of California, Davis. The report cited 43 interviews with automakers and dealers that sell in California as well as the JD Power 2013 Sales Satisfaction Index. The study found customer-satisfaction scores to be "much lower" for plug-in vehicle buyers than others. Maybe that's because the dealers themselves are less patient and find that selling plug-ins are more time-consuming, labor-intensive and stressful. And that's just getting the car out the door. More complications arise when dealing with the federal tax incentives issue. Of course, Tesla scored well, relative to the other dealerships. And all that gives more credence to the company's insistence on selling its vehicles directly to customers and without a third-party dealership network. Representatives of some of these dealership groups have been lobbying against the prospect of Tesla getting direct-sales rights. Michigan is the latest battleground between Tesla and pro-dealership entities. See below for an abstract on the UC Davis report and then read more here. New Car Dealers and Retail Innovation in California's Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market Abstract: Innovative new products like plug-in electric vehicles may need new approaches to market and sell them. We conducted 43 interviews with automakers and dealers selling plug-in vehicles in California's major metro markets and analyzed data on customer satisfaction with new car dealers and Tesla stores. Initial findings revealed: • Plug-in vehicle buyers rated the dealer purchase experience much lower than conventional vehicle buyers while Tesla earned industry-high scores; • Plug-in vehicles returned higher gross profits but place greater demands on dealers, including the provision of support services beyond traditional offerings; • New retail approaches undertaken by 'dealer innovators', including new methods for building and scaling dealer competence, could improve the PEV buying experience; an • Public incentives could better align with established dealer practices and business drivers to improve program effectiveness.

There are ways to sneak Tesla Model S into Russia for just 6.5M rubles

Tesla Fever has extended far and wide, winning over critics and everyday enthusiasts alike. The company is rapidly expanding its efforts both in its home market and abroad, but for some of its wealthy fans, that move isn't happening quite fast enough.
Dmitry Grishin is one such enthusiast. The 35-year-old multi-millionaire founder of Russia's Mail.ru is a big fan of Elon Musk's operation, so much so, in fact, that he's decided not to wait for sales to begin in the Russian Federation. Instead, he's gone off on his own and simply imported a Model S to get around Moscow.
The acquisition was not easy, as detailed by The Verge, and Grishin's car isn't quite as full-featured as a Model S sold in America - he's forced to use his phone's data connection rather than the car's . But, Grishin clearly has no regrets, spending a total of $180,000 to bring the EV to Moscow. In fact, Grishin has gone so far as to say he'd invest in the American EV manufacturer, if it hastened the brand's arrival in the motherland.

Tesla wants Massachusetts direct sales ruling to mean more

The approximately 8,300 square miles of Massachusetts may be a relative speck on the US map, but Tesla Motors is hoping a recent court decision there could have a big impact on potential sales and the legality of Tesla's distribution system throughout the rest of the country. Tesla, writes Automotive News, says that the reasoning behind a judge's decision to throw out a lawsuit against the company is broadly applicable. Now, the California-based automaker has New Jersey in its sights. Because Tesla doesn't have any existing distribution set-up in Massachusetts involving a third-party franchisee, the company isn't violating any statutes by opening a factory-owned dealership, the Massachusetts judge ruled. Tesla is saying that the judge's interpretation is applicable to other states such as New Jersey, which has outlawed Tesla's direct-to-consumer sales of its electric vehicles. And for that reason, the decision that forced Tesla to convert its New Jersey sales stores to Tesla galleries where sales are prohibited should be reversed. Of course, dealer representatives in New Jersey said the Massachusetts decision has no bearing in their state. Meanwhile, Texas, Arizona and Maryland are among other states where Tesla has been prohibited from selling vehicles direct because of existing dealership laws. This should get interesting.