Tesla aims to transition all sales to ‘online’ since the advent of the $35k Model 3

Tesla has announced that the company will be shifting their entire sales model to ‘online’ and closing many of the retail physical stores in the next few months — the decision came with the launch of the $35k Tesla Model 3, the most affordable Tesla electric vehicle yet.

Tesla expects to lower down their operating costs significantly by shifting its entire sales to ‘online’ rather than doing it the traditional way, ordering your cars online is not a new phenomenon but shifting the entire worldwide sales to e-commerce is a giant step Tesla is taking.

Since the automaker has roots in Silicon Valley, innovation is in the blood of the company, first, they eliminated the ‘dealership’ sales model, now Elon Musk and his team at Tesla aims to totally eliminate the need to purchase your car by going to a dealer or showroom.

Tesla Inc. has analyzed that the company is able to reduce its vehicle prices by 6% by shifting their entire global sales to the online model along with other cost efficiencies tied with economies of scale, Tesla stated the following in their latest blog post announcing the $35,000 Model 3 launch.

To achieve these prices while remaining financially sustainable, Tesla is shifting sales worldwide to online only. You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide. We are also making it much easier to try out and return a Tesla, so that a test drive prior to purchase isn’t needed. You can now return a car within 7 days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Quite literally, you could buy a Tesla, drive several hundred miles for a weekend road trip with friends and then return it for free. With the highest consumer satisfaction score of any car on the road, we are confident you will want to keep your Tesla.

Shifting all sales online, combined with other ongoing cost efficiencies, will enable us to lower all vehicle prices by about 6% on average, allowing us to achieve the $35,000 Model 3 price point earlier than we expected. Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores, with a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers. The important thing for customers in the United States to understand is that, with online sales, anyone in any state can quickly and easily buy a Tesla.

Tesla has already started winding up its stores and showrooms in the United States as we can see in the above picture — only a handful of strategic Tesla locations will be available to get touchy/feely with the best electric cars produced at this time.

Elon Musk had changed his Twitter profile picture to a solid black ‘Tesla Model 3 Standard Range‘ with basic options yesterday and he tweeted if you want to order the same car, it will just take 1 minute to order it through Tesla.com.

All of this makes sense in the 21st century and if Tesla does not advantage from this sales model, some other company might, especially the new tech-oriented electric vehicles companies like Rivian.

Tesla China has already started the ‘home delivery’ experience for the customers as the burden of orders and deliveries increase in the country.

Tesla strategically is also eliminating the ‘test drive’ phenomenon from the whole sales model and offering potential customers the ability to return the car in 7 days or within 1,000 miles of driving whichever comes first.

Hundreds of social media posts, videos, and articles testify that when someone experiences a Tesla electric car for the first time especially the Model 3, they immediately fall in love with the car or at least are very impressed with the design, performance and the uniqueness of these cars — we can see how random people get impressed and even say they’re now thinking of buying a Tesla Model 3 after taking a single Uber ride in it.

Related:

• Tesla launches the $35k Tesla Model 3 Standard and $37k Standard Plus variants
• Elon Musk sets 2019 Tesla goals: 400k deliveries, 500k/year production rate
• Gigafactory 3 construction and Tesla Model 3 deliveries on a fast track in China
• Amazon invests big in electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive
• China: Tesla Model 3 Performance takes on several ICE and electric cars in drag and time trial races
• Tesla offers a cheaper long-range RWD Model 3 in China, test drives available at Tesla Stores
• Elon Musk’s interview about Chinese Gigafactory, Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y
• Tesla China finds a creative solution for Supercharger ICE-ing issue