Tesla Model 3 should break the car market - the budget electric car of the most fashionable brand of our time was very lacking. Not only I think so, any fan of the transport of the future will confirm this.
Will it be possible to fulfill an ambitious plan, ruining the lives of competitors with a 100-year history? Let's talk about car maintenance, this is not the most pleasant topic, but what if you got into an accident and the transport needs to be restored?
Not so long ago, one of the owners of the Tesla Model S shared a story about how he crashed his car, and the repair dragged on for months. What will happen to the cheaper and more common Model 3s when they go on sale? That guy's car spent 8 months in service after being hit in back, because Tesla does not send spare parts for repairs. And this is not the only case.
Repairing a car for six months is normal
Other Tesla owners shared similar thoughts. In the event of an accident, you have to wait for parts for months. Tesla cannot be driven to any service where the familiar mechanic Uncle Tom will fix the damage, no, auto repair shops must first get the approval of Tesla itself. Moreover, unlike other manufacturers, dealers also do not repair, Tesla built a business on direct sales, offering to use for body work regional services.
Customers complain about the services, but the services are also unhappy with Tesla's policies. They say the company is taking too long to deliver parts.
The 40-year-old owner of a Tesla Model S 70 from Miami bought the car a year ago, he liked that it was an environmentally friendly mode of transport. Once he flew away, leaving the car in the parking lot at the airport, where someone drove into his bumper.
The man was lucky, the witness of the accident was a security guard in the parking lot, the insurance covered all the damage, with the exception of the deductible. The service calculated the repair for $ 7,500, taking 7-8 weeks for repairs. True, this was the only Tesla service for the next 100 km in the area.
Yes, if I knew then what it would result in, I would have asked to disassemble the car to determine the damage, and then put everything back together. And so she stood in the service for 2 months.
As a result, he had to pay for a rental car and gasoline, for which he had already lost the habit of paying. Meanwhile, his expensive car was being repaired. He wrote about the misadventures on the Reddit forum, where one of the participants came to his aid. It turned out that her husband works at Tesla, the woman asked him for a VIN number, and her husband “moved” the car in line, in the end it was ready in a couple of weeks.
After all these adventures, the man said that despite the optimistic attitude and the happy ending of the story, he would not buy Tesla if he knew that there was only one car service in all of Miami.
Yes, I'm a Tesla fan and I love it. But when they ask me whether to buy the same one or not, I tell my story. A small accident cost me several thousand dollars and 2 months of machine downtime. Tesla big problems with service.
Who is guilty?
Soon, Tesla president John McNeil shared his opinion about the first case where the car was repaired for 8 months.
The workshop did not take on the repair of the car for 3 months, then ordered more than 90 parts, taking 7 months to fix it. All this is evidence of the incompetence of the company. In addition, they put the blame on Tesla. Judging by the complaints of customers, the workshop should work faster, and the quality of service should be higher. When we looked into maintenance issues, we were stunned - the cars were sitting in the repair area for months, the mechanics did not even inspect them. And then these same services blamed Tesla, but they didn’t even order parts for repairs.
He also said that the delivery time for spare parts was reduced by 80%, but what prevented it from being done earlier?
According to the president of the company, now Tesla will solve issues “in a bad way”, each car during the repair will be monitored by a responsible representative of the company, he is responsible to the owner. These same people will help with the search for parts, in addition, Tesla will begin cooperation with 300 services over the coming weeks, at the same time refusing to cooperate with slow workshops.
Is this measure sufficient? When will Tesla Model 3 production start? full power, and will annually produce 500,000 cars, will there be new problem with the supply of spare parts?
Major automakers have done market research to find out which buyers are interested in the Tesla Model 3. It captures only part of the potential audience, but that's not the point.
The main thing is that the Model 3 is not only interested in technology fanatics. It is also interesting to ordinary people, and this is already a wake-up call for Tesla, and here's why.
In total, Tesla received 373,000 Model 3 pre-orders, and the study involved 800 people who made reservations, owners of other electric vehicles, and owners of expensive cars. It turned out that among the interested parties there are many Toyota owners, and the annual income of the audience is about $ 25-49 thousand dollars in 2015. average price Model 3 - about $ 35,000 without transportation benefits.
Since most potential buyers are accustomed to affordable and reliable cars like Toyota Camry, then these people will be furious with the quality of services offered by Tesla services.
In turn, Tesla stated that such a study has nothing to do with reality, and the number of services does not affect anything. The first repair shops had only a few car lifts, now there are dozens. And 80% service work can be done remotely.
Customers are happy, but for how long?
Most customers of the Tesla brand are satisfied with the terms of service. The brand took first place in terms of quality of service in a survey conducted by Consumer Reports. Let me remind you that the same publication, respected in America, “rotten” new MacBooks, Apple listened to the reviews of the publication and released new firmware, after which the MacBook received a traditional recommendation for purchase.
However, Tesla's repair problems have given some people some bad memories.
Maybe that's why I didn't book the queue for the Model 3, I figured for a long time whether to take it or not, but in the long run there should be no problems with fixing the car.
So said Tim Dorr, owner of the Tesla Model S85. He also said that his car was sent to the service after damage to the front. In Atlanta, where he lives, there are only 2 official workshops, the repair cost him $ 28,000. The car stood there for 5 months, the service blamed Tesla for everything, saying that they were fulfilling the request for the supply of spare parts for a long time.
But after this incident, as Tim said, he became a more accurate driver. He likes Tesla products, but he hopes that there will be no problems with the supply of parts.
With the advent of the Model 3, logistics will improve, cars will become more popular and widespread. At the same time, Tesla will train qualified personnel for repairs. But the main thing is to solve problems with components, because if there are no spare parts, staff training no longer plays a role.
Opinion
Now you understand why the news about the Titan project died down, is it the code development of an Apple car? Why is Google also not talking about the drone, although it does not refuse to support the numerous startups working on the transport of the future?
Because it’s not enough to hold a presentation, show cars, and then row money with a shovel. We need services and infrastructure. Certainly, Tesla is more profitable sell new cars, and spare parts for owners broken cars lacks.
Will the introduction of Model 3 change the situation? It should become a mass and more widespread machine. Or will all the glory of Elon Musk be blown away overnight when the owners of the immortal Toyota Camry realize that the fairy tale is over when one day they have to bring the Model 3 in for repair, and there will be no spare parts?
US authorities have launched an investigation into the causes of the first fatal accident involving a car that was moving on autopilot. The accident itself occurred in Florida back in May, but it has only become known about the incident in which the driver died. Tesla electric car The Model S, with its autopilot on, rammed a tractor-trailer on the highway, which was moving in a perpendicular direction, trying to cross the intersection. According to the press service of Tesla, the accident occurred due to a combination of tragic circumstances.
By the way, about a year ago unmanned vehicle from also got into serious accident, which did not cause casualties, but three Google employees were injured. "Self-propelled" hybrid crossover Lexus The RX 450h was approaching an intersection when two vehicles in front of it suddenly began to slow down despite the traffic signal being allowed to pass. The drivers of these cars saw a traffic jam after the intersection and, despite the green light, did not dare to go to the intersection of streets so as not to block traffic at the intersection. The autonomous Lexus also slowed down. The driver of the car behind the Google car did not have time to react and crashed into a Lexus at a speed of 27 km/h. Later it turned out that the man who was driving this car did not even have time to press the brake pedal before the moment of impact.
So, from July to September 2018, Tesla cars with autopilot turned on got into trouble every 5,375,208 km of the distance traveled. With the autopilot turned off, accidents occurred more often - every 3,122,127 km. For comparison, data from the National Security Administration traffic NHTSA show that car crashes in the USA occur every 791,797 km, that is, much more often.
Given that accidents can vary in severity and circumstances, the company wants to meet with the owners in person emergency vehicles. In her opinion, this will help to find out weak sides vehicles and improve the security system based on customer feedback.
In general, the Tesla report turned out to be very short - I would like to see more data on incidents. The company promises to collect more complete pictures of incidents, so it is likely that in future quarters the reports will become more detailed.
Previously, the company has already published reports, but only about certain incidents. For example, in April, details of a fatality were disclosed on the company's website.
What do you think about safety Tesla electric cars? You can chat about this topic in our Telegram chat.
December 26th, 2017
So, we continue to wonder if Tesla is really super innovative, unique car future. If you do not believe the "envious opinions of spiteful critics" you can always read the conclusions Western experts about that, or about that or. Well, maybe it's all just evil tongues that are envious, for example. Or those who are simply on the other side of the sect: well, like iPhones and Android followers.
But read what a person "from a sect" says - the founder of the Russian "Tesla Club" Andrey Vratsky. Why should he lie and slander, do you believe him? And he says, in general, for many shocking information:
Andrey Vratsky bought a Tesla S four years ago - one of the first in Russia. next model American manufacturer electric cars - crossover Tesla X - he tested in November of this year in the United States. Having traveled more than 2000 km across California, Vratsky was convinced that for long-distance travel electric cars are not yet suitable. In an interview with Forbes, he explained why and told how much it costs to operate and Tesla repair in Russia, what is different new model from the old and how convenient the American infrastructure for traveling by electric cars.
At basic version Tesla X, as the manufacturer claims, the power reserve should be almost 400 km, how much did it actually drive?
Lying manufacturer. You can squeeze a maximum of 300 km out of it, but in our case, 90% of the battery was sucked out after 200 km and we had to get up to the charging station. The Model X crossover is much less aerodynamic than the Model S fastback, for example, at 85 mph, power consumption increases by 15-20% compared to 75 mph. It turned out that we got up to charge every two hours and wandered around the car while it was charging for an hour. This is very annoying, especially if you decide to travel a long distance in one day. So, on the stretch of 1000 km, we charged the car six times! Charging is not a problem for the owner of such a car when operating in the city and traveling to the suburbs, but for long-distance travel they are not yet very convenient.
How much did the charge cost?
We mainly used fast chargers. Tesla stations(Supercharger), charging on them is free - its cost is already included in the price of the car. There are third-party stations, they are already frankly cashing in. On one of these night charging cost us $ 50 - one and a half times more expensive than refueling petrol car equal to Tesla X size. With quantity charging stations There were no problems, before the trip I studied the infrastructure and knew that we would not be left without charging at all, and this happened. There are stations on all major highways. Queues at transit (between settlements) there are no “superchargers”, but on urban (within big city or in distributed agglomerations like Silicon Valley) free places on chargers in a big deficit. This is due, in my opinion, to the fact that many Tesla owners living nearby visit the city's "superchargers" in order to use free charging instead of charging at home for money.
Does the US somehow motivate people to switch to electric cars?
While buying an electric car is mostly still a fad, how can you drive on gasoline if you work and live in the most advanced and greenest state in the US? But there is also motivation. You can drive on the carpool, lanes dedicated to cars with passengers in the cabin. While there are still tax deduction when buying an electric car in the amount of $ 7,500 - this is a serious amount if you buy small electric car worth $30,000. But this deduction will be canceled next year. (remember, we discussed with you)
How much does it cost to rent a Tesla X in the US and how did it perform on the road?
Approximately $150 per day. In the US, there is Turo, a service for renting cars from small companies and private owners, like Airbnb for apartments, renting is half the price. It is very convenient that you can choose specific model rare in large rental companies, or not occurring at all. Tesla X is a rather rigid car, you don’t feel it on the pavement, but on the concrete of American highways it shakes noticeably, especially passengers in the rear seats.
At first, the rear automatic doors look cool, opening upwards with “gull wings”, but after hitting them with your head several times, you understand that this form of doors is not the most successful. And they open slowly. And they don't have glove boxes. But I liked the decision on the front door - it automatically starts to close behind you when you press the brake pedal. Overall, no major technology breaks from the Tesla S in new car not visible. It is disappointing that the manufacturer continues to be careless about the interior design and the quality of the finish. As in the Model S, the interior of the Tesla X clearly does not correspond to the class of the car.
What's wrong with it?
Tesla costs like premium car, in the area of the top Mercedes models and Porsche, and the materials and quality of the interior are at the level budget car Toyota/Hyundai level. In my Tesla S, I had to redo almost everything inside. Having bought the car for $130,000, I was forced to spend another $30,000 to bring everything up to the mark. I replaced the front seats, because the “Teslov” ones really hurt my back, changed the geometry of the rear ones. Additionally, an armrest, pockets in the doors were added, the upholstery made of cheap eco-leather was replaced with a normal natural one.
Next Tesla model, as announced, will be sold for $ 35,000, it turns out that her interior will be five times worse than the existing ones.
It's scary to even imagine. It was not possible to see a small Tesla live, they are not yet available either in showrooms or on the roads. But, even according to videos on Youtube, there are many questions about the quality of the interior. Build quality too. In general, Tesla, and this will certainly be a surprise to many, is not the most reliable car. My friend's Tesla X almost fell apart on the go, as they later told in the service, due to a burst shock absorber cup.
How often do Teslas break down and how much does it cost to repair?
The company sells cars directly and repairs them itself. Therefore, only Tesla itself has statistics and the company does not publish it. There is a suspicion that such information would affect the perception of the brand quite negatively. By the way, we in Russia, practically the only ones in the world, can approximately estimate the number of breakdowns in these machines. Since there is no "Teslov" service and broken cars come to be repaired in Moscow unofficial service centers, from where, in case of serious breakdowns, they are sent for repairs to Europe or the States.
Batteries, electronics, motors fail. And this is in a car in which, it would seem, there is nothing to break. My engine failed at 30,000 km. Under warranty, a car bought in the USA can only be repaired in North America but that would take six months. I took it to Germany, where the engine was changed to a new one at a company service, the repair budget was approximately 1 million rubles. It is easier for Tesla owners of the European specification, their repair in Europe will be guaranteed and free of charge, they will only have to pay for the transportation of the car to Finland or Germany and back.
According to our statistics, about 20-25% of all Teslas have already gone through a major overhaul. In money, the spread is quite wide, from several hundred thousand rubles to replace a block of contactors to a million or more when replacing a motor or battery. I am sure that such statistics around the world, indirect data, including my personal communication with American and European servicemen, indicate approximately the same breakdown statistics in other countries. If nothing changes, after the release of the mass Tesla 3, they risk simply drowning in the repair areas. With this build quality, the only question is when Tesla Motors go broke on repairs.
Maybe just change it to a car with a traditional or hybrid engine? For $150,000, it's pretty easy to find a car with excellent quality And warranty service from official dealers.
Well, for lovers of comfortable movement and high-quality interiors the best choice will still be German manufacturers, for example Mercedes W222 (for riding in the States - his hybrid version, it has the same lane advantages as the Tesla) or the Porsche Panamera.
Not enough? Well, here are some more interesting details.
Motley Fool Investment Company published the story of his elder technical specialist Evan Niu, who was a long-time investor in Tesla, and in 2015 decided to buy her car - Model S. However, six months later, his wife had a minor accident, and since then the car has been in the workshop due to interruptions in the supply of necessary parts.
According to a Motley Fool employee, although the speed of the culprit was slow, due to the fact that the body of the Model S contains more aluminum than the body of other cars, it is lighter, but less durable.
“On the other hand, it absorbs impulses better on impact, but it also costs more. As a result, if a Tesla gets into an accident, the car body looks very bad, but the interior and passengers usually get along without damage, ”Nu says.
Tesla takes care of most of the routine maintenance. To eliminate more serious damage(For example, body repair) the company concludes contracts and conducts certification of auto repair shops. Their specialists order parts from Tesla and assemble and disassemble the car.
“I heard that Tesla parts take longer to leave the factory than parts from other automakers. But this is not surprising, because Tesla is a young company with only one factory, ”explains Niu.
He studied car forums, where some Tesla owners talked about having to wait two to three months for parts to arrive. After three months have passed and the workshop has not received all necessary spare parts, Niu tried to contact the company's customer support to find out what the status of his order was and when the parts would arrive in Colorado.
However, according to him, none of the support staff was ready to deal with his problem. “We were played football from one representative to another, giving a minimum useful information', recalls Nu.
Finally, one of the managers took up the problem, and parts began to gradually arrive at the auto repair shop, however, according to the owner of Tesla, they came in almost one part, and there were not enough of them to start repairs. “The main missing parts were the trunk lid and the rear fender. In November 2016, after four months had passed, Tesla representatives assured us that all parts would arrive at the workshop no later than the last week of November. But they never came,” says Niu.
In mid-December, the car service received the necessary (but not all) parts and got to work, interrupting for new year holidays. In mid-January 2017, when the auto repair shop was supposed to return to work, the mechanics found out that Tesla never sent them the rivets.
“I thought, well, such an ordinary detail as rivets can be delivered on time. It turned out that I was wrong, and I was not the only one who faced this problem. I contacted the company, Tesla promised to deliver them as soon as possible, but they only came in last week January. By this time, the car had been in the workshop longer than I had driven it,” continues Niu.
The body work was completed, and the auto repair shop notified Niu that the car was going to be painted, after which the specialists would check the electronics and everything would be ready. “It turned out that now it is necessary to replace the 12-volt batteries that no longer hold a charge. Perhaps because the machine for a long time stood motionless."
The store ordered batteries a week and a half ago. The difficulty is that Tesla orders them from one supplier, which usually delays production. Now, due to the battery, we will have to wait some more. But this is such a part that the owner of any other car can purchase within 15 minutes.
When Tesla delivers the batteries to the workshop, the car will be ready in a day or two. Niu estimates that this should happen before March 12, but he is not sure if there will be some other complication.
Life without a car
According to Niu, Tesla is famous for its generous policy towards car owners who bought cars on credit and transferred it to service maintenance. “Unfortunately, this does not apply to those whose cars are in the workshop,” writes Niu.
The culprit of the accident was not insured, and Nu had to get a car rental from the insurance compensation for the time until their vehicle is under renovation. “Unfortunately, the rental coverage was only for 45 days, which is usually enough to cover all repair work', says Nu.
In parallel, he had to pay off the loan. At the same time, even taking into account preferential rates from the insurance company, renting a car would cost him $1,000 a month. He didn't have that kind of money. Luckily, his mother agreed to lend him her car, which she barely used, and it saved him $7,000.
What does this mean for investors
“To say it was a traumatic experience is an understatement. It shook our faith in Tesla, both as longtime investors and as new customers,” says Niu. The Motley Fool employee said the company never explained to him exactly what caused the shortage of parts, so he finds it difficult to say whether it was a coincidence or a system problem.
For that Tesla time produced tens of thousands of vehicles, including 29,000 Model S sedans. “Some of the company's problems are definitely related to its ability to produce parts. Theoretically, over time, this problem should be solved, because the company continues to increase production capacity, but I don’t think it’s all about that,” says Nu.
He is surprised that the company plans to increase its user base to 500,000 people by 2018, but now its production capacity is not enough to serve even the current number of customers. “Besides, the mainstream user will not forgive the mistakes that early fans will forgive,” continues Nu.
Now he and his wife are deciding whether they should get a Model 3. “As it turns out, having two Teslas in the garage is a significant risk, especially if one of them gets into any accident, even the smallest one. When I shared our story with the people who ordered the Model 3, some of them made the decision not to buy,” he concludes.
Tesla, which produces the world's most popular electric cars, is famous not only for this, but also for the introduction of the first autopilot available on the market. Large automobile concerns So far, they are only testing such technologies, adding only some of their components to commercial products: automatic parking, tracking the car in front, intelligent braking in emergency situations. Tesla was the first in the market to risk releasing an autopilot to the masses, and the first to suffer from this. We have collected five cases where Tesla cars got into major accidents.
First death involving Tesla cars. There are many mysteries in this story. Almost 2 months passed between the incident and its public publicity. During this time period, Elon Musk sold over $2 billion worth of shares, earning a decent amount of money. Naturally, after information about the accident became public, Tesla shares fell sharply in price.
Tesla acknowledged the autopilot error in the accident. The autopilot was unable to identify the truck's white trailer on the road, and the vehicle simply ran under it. The driver died on the spot. According to some reports, the driver behind the wheel of the Tesla X was watching a movie, which did not allow him to react in time to traffic situation.
The latest public incident involving Tesla vehicles took place earlier this month in the city of Indianapolis. Casey Speckman, who was driving, and her future husband Kevin McCarthy crashed into a tree at full speed. The woman died on the spot, and the passenger in the hospital. The main version of what happened: excess speed limit. The autopilot had nothing to do with this accident. On the contrary, it would not allow the car to develop such a speed if it was turned on.
This crash showed another problem with Tesla cars. When mechanical damage batteries, they explode and release a huge amount of heat. put them out by conventional means very problematic, it is necessary to have special chemicals, plain water you can't do it here.
Tesla Model S and motorcyclist (October 12, 2016)
An incident that occurred in October in Norway. A Tesla car in autopilot mode hit a motorcyclist on the road. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but the case itself caused heated discussion among experts. Elon Musk's company received another round of criticism and accusations that it did not test the autopilot enough, forgetting about road users such as motorcyclists and cyclists. Tesla acknowledged the problem, promising to improve the mechanism for recognizing small vehicles.
The most ridiculous accident involving Tesla cars happened in Montana this summer. A Chinese man named Pan, accelerated in his Tesla X on a mountainous stretch of road at night, turned on the autopilot and took his hands off the steering wheel. The car, of course, began to warn of an emergency, but the negligent driver did nothing, calmly crashing into a bump stop. When asked by the policeman why he did nothing, Mr. Pan replied that he did not speak English well and could not understand what the autopilot wanted from him. Tesla has repeatedly warned that its automatic system piloting is only suitable for motorways and city roads, therefore, in this case The fault lies entirely with the driver.
Tesla Model S, driving on autopilot in Germany, crashed into a bus. The passengers of the bus were not injured, but the driver of the electric car received minor injuries. The incident occurred almost immediately after updating the autopilot to version 8.0. As shown by the police investigation, the driver of the bus was to blame for the accident, who turned untimely into the lane of cars, where he is forbidden by law.
As you can see, any accident involving Tesla cars immediately attracts public attention. Many people want to convict Elon Musk's company that their technologies are dangerous for the lives of road users, but, as practice shows, the Tesla autopilot saves the lives of drivers more often than it leads to emergencies on the roads. In many cases of accidents where Tesla cars appear, it is not the automatic control system that is to blame, but the drivers who drove the car themselves. Autopilot Tesla not yet perfect. But it is designed not to replace the driver, but to be his assistant, helping in situations where the human reaction is not enough to properly respond to the traffic situation. No matter how experts criticize Tesla, the American company is doing a great job for the personal car market and road safety.
