Tesla: Mechanics Will Make House Calls

NEW YORK - Taking a cue from house-call services like Best Buy's Geek Squad, electric carmaker Tesla Motors is launching a maintenance plan where mechanics travel to owners' homes or offices to perform repairs and tuneups.

Tesla, which makes the $109,000 Roadster electric car, said the plan is convenient for customers who won't have to bring their vehicle to a showroom, while cutting costs by making a large network of Tesla service locations unnecessary.

"You know how there's a Chevy dealer on every block or strip mall? We don't intend to have a footprint like this," spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said.

But the service won't be cheap. The carmaker will charge vehicle owners $1 for every roundtrip mile its technicians travel, from showroom to garage, with a minimum charge of $100 per trip.

For the Tesla driver in Manhattan, where the company opened a store over the summer, the cost won't be much. But for Roadster devotees in Honolulu, that's a charge of about $4,800 per trip -- not including the cost of repair.

Still, Konrad said the maintenance cost will still be low because electric cars have fewer moving parts and require less "care and feeding" than vehicles powered by internal combustion.

The company said it got the idea for the plan after it issued a recall of hundreds of Roadsters in May to address a steering problem. Rather than ask owners to bring the vehicle to a showroom -- there are only four currently in the U.S. -- it sent technicians to repair the cars at their homes and offices. The response was overwhelmingly positive, Konrad said.

The San Carlos, Calif.-based startup has so far sold about 700 Roadsters, its only vehicle on the market now. The company in June was approved for $465 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to help it build next-generation electric cars.

It has plans to introduce an electric sedan, the Model S, which it hopes to price under $50,000 after government rebates when it goes on sale in 2011.

The new service plan will be standard for all new Tesla vehicles and current owners will have their warranties updated so they are covered by the new plan, Konrad said.

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On the Web: http://www.teslamotors.com

Comments

[StephBr]

People people. While you are debating here, the rest of the world is running away from you. Europe and Asia have already very nice, practical, affordable electric cars.
It is part funny and part pathetic to watch you wondering if it is a good idea or if it even work.

[Mikeeee]

All you naysayers do realize that the computer that you're sitting at sending these negative messages is a result of a machine that weighed 30 tons. Should they have stopped because of it's limited abilities? It could barely handle what in the 70's a hand held calculator would do almost instantly and with the power from a couple of batteries. When Apollo went to the moon, they did it with an on board calculator (computer) with less crunching power than any scientific calculator you can buy today for about $20, should they have not spent the billions to go?

Yes the Tesla car is high end and expensive, but it is the only "really" viable stand alone battery car available. Has a decent range and top speed (235 mi as opposed to a 50 mi by all the others) and will charge off a household circuit, pretty good if you ask me and with investment and research those numbers will improve.
More money needs to poured into "that" technology, not hybrids.

All the naysayers are doing what conservatives always do, they belittle and obstruct advances in technology that won't return a profit 15 minutes after it's developed.
It's a good thing the founding fathers were liberals and men of courage, something a conservative is incapable of.

[GetoffMylawn]

I rode in one of these, it was an amazing car.
But, let me join the mob of idiots in the forum in saying, "Down with anybody who tries to make something new!!!"

[NealHib]

Just as our utility announces a 14% rate hike, the Tesla is out and its back to the Hummer.

[YankinCanada]

There is a major "game changer" in the works regarding electricity. Check out the National Ignition Facility in California. Fusion to create electricity, all we want for comparatively little and with no emissions, is about 3 years away. I keep wondering why this isn't being hyped more......

https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/nif/

[Lex10]

What masterful, waste of time BS. Does an oil company own them?

[take10]

More use of electricity to charge them and increased use of coal to supply the greater demand for electricity. With the extremely high cost of these vehicles, where is the benefit? Just another toy for the rich to have bragging rights!

[Lochmon]

The benefit is that as our electrical grid becomes more green, vehicles such as these automatically follow suit. It's not like we can stop everything until low-carbon substitutes are widely available.

[jwredd]

Where's the benefit? It's technological advancement. You can get a fully functioning laptop for $199. How much was a personal computer 10 years ago? Or did you miss all that time in between and think the $199 laptop just appeared here out of nowhere, small, cheap and powerful?

You're right, at the moment they aren't cheap and using coal to make electricity isn't a good thing overall. That's why we have scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs working on tidal power and other alternatives for producing electricity and the car technology will follow the way of everything in the tech market- smaller, faster, cheaper. You may not want to be a part of that development process but don't stand there whining about how it looks at the beginning stage. Stand aside and let the innovators do their thing.

[take10]

Speak for yourself as I did! My opinion won't impede the process or the progress. However, you don't have any more facts than I do, but I will allow you your opinion which has no more value than mine. Paying a $dollar a mile plus repair costs doesn't sound like something anyone other than the rich could afford! I presently own 2 Mercedes Benz and a Honda Odessey, all loaded with technological breakthroughs. The price of either didn't go down because of it. Mixing laptops with electric autos is like mixing apples and golfballs! Get real!

[clearpepsi]

I look forward to being able to buy an electric car some day, but really this car company is suppose to around 10 years from now? why is the one car that they make in the least popular category of cars sold and why does it cost four times the average sale price of new cars... hmm... sounds, reads, and smells like a bad business model

[Lochmon]

It's the least popular category of cars because it's the hardest to build economically. It costs so much more because this category has had so little prior development.

If it makes you feel better, most of the European auto makers are also developing electrics. If there were not US auto makers doing the same, we would just be left behind again, a few years down the road.

[scottarino]

Left behind again? We are still behind. We have been for the past 25-30 years. There is no "again"....it is "still".

[nanderson65]

Maybe if you laid off the 'pepsi' it would seem 'clear''.

[scottarino]

Nice one, Olaf. Do you use that gift in everyday life, or do you just break it out for special occasions?

[GeoNorth]

Electric cars make sense in some ways. While the range is somewhat low right now, battery tech will have to improve. The idea of electric power is going to be nessesary. We can make power out of petroleum, hydrogen, wind, sun, etc. What all these sources have in common is that electricity can be made from them. Some people are fond of saying that any of these sources will not replace petro. Of course, it won't. But with the common factor of electricty, they can, together, replace it.

Start inovating, America.

[NilesCrane]

We had fantastic electric cars that went 100 miles on a single charge in 1999!!!!! and it was built by GM!!! AND IT WAS CHEAP!!!!!! AHH AHHHH AHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I know all those things sound crazy, but they werent..we had/have the technology to make cheap reliable electric cars but oil companies and car companies and the government dont want to make them....

Unless GM trashed their technology for the EV1 they could technically produce the car again..and because they made these cars, toyota and honda thought this was the future so they invested heavily in hybrid and electric cars, and then GM trashed their EV1s...setting back the american auto industry another 20 years....

Tesla is dumb, I drive by their showroom everyday and its not special. Its expensive for what it is...

If anything the only car feasible right now would be the Aptera...it only seats 2, well 2 1/5, and it getting distributed right now to people who signed up for it, and it costs around 30k, gets over 200mpg and looks amazing and different.. (they are coming out with an all electric first, their hybrid comes out in 2010).

[blue state nightmare]

"We had fantastic electric cars that...."

No, they we crappy cars that got 55-75 miles per charge depending on what battery pack they had and:

each one cost $33,000 to "buy" and $1.25 million to build

it was an ugly as sin two-seater that weighed 3000lbs

on slow charge (110V) it would take at least 15 hours to charge for a "fill-up"

for fast charge you needed an appliance in your garage (cost?) and on fast charge they used to catch fire

So what we had was proof not even that electric cars were feasible/i­nfeasible, only that GM was unable to deliver them to the market, while you take that to mean it is a ten year old off the shelf technology.

Oh, and I am sick of hearing how "they" killed the electric car. Killing that dog to defend whatever business is like me shooting polar bears to keep them out of Florida - it was never a threat - so why waste the effort?

Yes Tesla is a toy for the ultra rich, which is how many new technologies get their start , but unfortunately it is not even new tech. The cells are the same ones that are in every laptop now - no breakthrough there. And Tesla is getting stimulus cash to build toys for the ultra rich, which is socialism for the rich (again).

[jumperpin]

Fanned

[Szin]

I love how having a $100k car makes someone 'ultra rich'. Seriously?

You clearly have no concept of what 'ultra rich' is.

Oh, NOT fanned, btw.

[sheine]

Wrong . The EV1 was a beautiful car, I went to the showroom and saw it. It had a range of over 100 miles with the NiMH battery. This critic like other naysayers always picks the lead acid battery range.

Even better was the Toyota RAV4 Electric. Hundreds are still on the road in California. Southern California Edison has a fleet of them as service vehicles. The range of this vehicle, a small SUV, is nominally 125 miles but SCE has reportedly gotten the range up to 150.

Owners report virtually no trouble, little maintenance in over 100,000 miles on the original battery.

The truth that the media has never reported is that the NiMH battery works exceptionally well. Chevron bought the patent and would not allow the use of these batteries for electric cars. They are the batteries currently used in all hybrid cars. Like many early buyers of the Prius, I have over 100,000 miles of use with no trouble. If these batteries were sold again, any backyard mechanic could build a good electric car. And, there was a small company that built a car called Selectria Sunrise that achieved a range of over 300 miles on one charge.

[paulbikes]

I want trains.

[sparkey]

What, not fully moderated like half the other stories? I'm SO disappointed.

[unitron]

This is not a new idea. My paternal grandfather was a roving trouble shooter for the White Motor Company way back in the day.

[PoliteEuropean]

I would just like to see a reliable study showing what is the environmental impact of producing such car as Tesla and some typical one. I mean, does i.e. the battery production is harmful. It is just like with the wind turbines, or solar panels - people often forget that even if the energy generated by them is eco-friendly, their production is not (this works especially with the solar panels, maybe newer generation does not have so negative impact on the environment).

[skatscan]

Yup, because there's nothing more environmentally friendly than the production of nuclear energy and the production of gasoline. Cars already have batteries so even that is a red herring.

[Ping]

This is a toy for rich people. Why are we even taking these guys seriously.

[PoliteEuropean]

Yes, there are cheaper ways to limit oil usage, i.e. with liquid gas (LPG, very popular in by country), CNG, bio-fuel (AFAIR in Brasil they ahve introduced it on a larger scale), advanced hybrids etc.
Sure, there are some bad sides, in i.e. LPG case power of your car will fall for something like 20%, and it is really resonalbe to install it in small-liter cars, popular in EU, but rather not in the USA where you like these humongous cars for some reason. Some point that they are safe in large have car... Well, just check these two, randomly choosen videos:
tiny FIAT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcV5-y7aEf4
and some FORD pickup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdvEIMq6vGI

[Ping]

There is a reason for humongous cars. Trying to export European culture will fail because we are not European.

[Ping]

Dude...those videos are lame.

The worst and most dangerous form of accident is T boning. In other words side impact. It also does not take into account the fact that the height of the truck allows the driver better vision.