Comment by m463
1 month ago
I remember when tesla was young and elon talked about selling electric cars through dealers. He said it would not work, they would not be advocates, they would prevent sales.
And I think that is spot on.
I also suspect internally the thinking is that the f150 lightning costs more to make than sell, which means it won't get strong advocacy.
Thing is, I'm 100% certain years of tesla vehicles cost more to make than they sold for, just in the nature of developing new things.
I wonder who makes their decision by going to the dealer, though? Ford didn't even regularly stock Lightnings at the dealer, in fact, they basically sold them online and kept inventory at regional fulfillment centers. As soon as someone pulled the trigger, they'd ship the truck the last mile to the dealer of their choice.
Maybe the dealers could have done better. In fact, they definitely could have. Most did have a demo Lightning, in my experience, but that doesn't mean salespeople were pushing customers towards them.
Tesla made a lot of their money selling carbon credits so it is likely some of their cars didn't break even.