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Why dealerships should embrace Tesla's direct sales competition

National and regional dealership associations have it in for Tesla Motors. For the past few years the organizations have been pushing lawmakers – to whom, it bears mentioning, they have made generous financial contributions – for legislation that would make it difficult for the Californian automaker to continue with its direct-to-consumer, company-store sales model. This is, of course, in addition to laws already on the books which make it illegal for manufacturers engaged with existing independent dealership networks to operate their own retail locations. As you may have heard, the dealers have recently had success in New Jersey and, previously, in Texas. Arizona passed a law in 2000 that forbids manufacturers from obtaining a dealer's license, completing the triad of states which now restrict sales from Tesla stores. Meanwhile, the company has had some amount of success pushing back against these efforts in Massachusetts, Ohio, New York and North Carolina. It is a constant battle, though, even in most of those locales. Direct sales are key to Tesla's success. Direct sales are key to Tesla's success. It's a big part of how the company managed to move from a simple start up to something of an American automotive phenomenon. While CEO Elon Musk likes to say that it uses this method because selling an electric car would somehow be a conflict of interest for dealerships that also sell conventionally- powered vehicles, there is really a lot more to it than that, and it's wrapped around the customer experience. You can sit at home in your pajamas and configure exactly which color and options you want for your Model S over the Internet, send an electronic payment and have that exact car arrive at your door some weeks later. The company stores are an outgrowth of that concept, but allow you to see physical samples of the colors and materials involved, take a test drive and interface with a friendly human who can immediately answer any questions you might have, as well as facilitate financial transactions. You still get the exact car that you order. Having company-owned stores lets Tesla keep complete control of its entire retail network and therefore, the buying experience. Staff aren't paid by commission and are encouraged to be truly customer-focused.

Questions bubble up about Tesla Model S sales numbers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that releasing monthly sales numbers allows the media, "to read all sorts of nonsense into the deliveries." He said that with the company's irregular delivery schedule – 1,000 in a country one month, only a handful the next – the spikes and valleys would not give an accurate picture of the company's actual orders or demand. But, when there's no transparency, people will go looking for answers – or nonsense. Daily Kanban found only 17,819 Model S EVs were registered between January and September 2014. Case in point: Tesla Model S sales, which everyone wants to know about but no one is quite sure about. The best we can do is the quarterly delivery numbers that Tesla does release. For 2014, the official numbers released so far add up to 21,821 (1Q: 6,457, 2Q: 7,579, 3Q: 7,785). That's for the first three quarters, or from January through the end of September, and represents global deliveries. But Daily Kanban obtained global data for all sorts of electric cars from JATO and discovered that there were only 17,819 Model S EVs registered around the world between January and September 2014, a difference of 4,002. Previously, Daily Kanban quoted John Lovallo, a research analyst at Merrill Lynch, saying that Tesla might have around 3,000 Model S EVs, "in inventory or in transit," and is curious to know what's going on. While this next comparison isn't perfect because the dates don't match up, we can take a look at sales of the Nissan Leaf to see how the official and JATO numbers compare. Nissan said in the middle of January 2014 that it sold a cumulative 100,000 Leafs and then announced towards the end of November that it had sold 150,000 total. JATO's numbers show that Nissan sold 44,897, globally, between January and September. We certainly don't know if the different between JATO's number and the official Tesla figures represent a delay in how fast people register their cars or if something else is going on. We have asked Tesla for a comment and for more detailed sales numbers, but have not gotten a response. We do know that, while not ideal, monthly sales data can sometimes be quite helpful in figuring out what's going on in the industry.

When your Tesla Model S gets stolen, fire up the app [w/video]

It's a nightmare for anyone who loves their car: you return to your parking spot, only to find it empty. You flash the lights or honk the horn with your key fob just to make sure you didn't forget where you parked, but nothing happens. What do you do? If you're a Tesla Model S owner, you get out your phone, open your Tesla app and track that baby. That's exactly what Shahin Pirani did when her Tesla went missing after visiting a friend in San Diego. Seeing that the car was nearby, she called the police as she tried to track down the car. When the cops showed up, the two thieves fled, resulting in a 20-minutes chase. Pirani watched it all go down through her app, able to track her car's location and speed throughout the pursuit. "The car was actually running at 100 mph so we figured the car was being chased by the cops." Eventually, the police were able to stop the car with spike strips and apprehend the suspects. What makes this story particularly notable is its rarity. While the car can be a thief's target, the Model S was recently named the least-stolen car in the US. With the suite of technology on board to ensure the car's security, as well as Tesla's continual over-the-air updates to fix any vulnerabilities (including to hackers), that's not totally surprising. Teals even has a feature that can shut the car down remotely in some circumstances. And after her ordeal, Pirani remains a satisfied customer, saying "After this, I'm not going to get any other car for sure." You can watch some b-roll TV news footage of the event's aftermath below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.