The linked YouTube video is a very good explanation of why Hertz is having problems with Tesla EVs. At the end the presenter asks for opinions. Mine is that it sounds like growing pains. Maybe instead of buying 100K cars thet could have bough a much smaller number to learn about renting EVs at a lower level of risk. What I find worrisome is the difficulty of getting parts from Tesla. Tesla needs to fix that. A few days ago I was pondering about repairing Teslas. With their continuous innovation it must be hard to get the right parts for the one you are trying to fix. I wonder if that is part of the problem.Maybe tomorrow someone will bring up this subject at the earnings call.
Just as the Hertz deal boosted Tesla’s stock price, the current story will weight on it but i don’t think the long term story is broken in any way. Learn and adapt.
Denny Schlesinger
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A few days ago I was pondering about repairing Teslas. With their continuous innovation it must be hard to get the right parts for the one you are trying to fix.
“Back in the day” I did a lot of work on my cars and those of friends. Japanese car companies were known for mid-year design changes to make things better, more reliable, bug fixes, etc. You would need to bring your VIN when ordering parts to ensure than you got the part right for your car. I am sure it was extra overhead for the manufacturers, but it also gave me a sense of security that problems would be addressed when they learned about them, not when they got around to them. TSLA can do this too if they want.
I am more concerned about the longer term transition for drivers/voters from a car that you can gas up in 10 minutes within a mile of wherever you are versus a car that doesn’t save fuel money when adding in cost of public charging stations, a car that weighs more than petro-cars and costs more. TSLA is the best of breed, but the breed has some endemic problems.
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When I worked at Boeing getting spare parts for long out of production aircraft was a recurring problem. In most cases the original production plan (if still available) was of little assistance. You don’t build parts for on-going production and a one-off in the same way. Even if you were to adopt parts of the original production plan, the tooling might not be available. Most often a new plan would have to developed and the production of the replacement part would have to be squeezed into the production schedule.
I’m not trying to say that this situation translates to Tesla. Building a few hundred aircraft a year is not the same as building thousands of cars.
To be honest, I think Tesla might have a bigger problem than Boing has. My guess is that Tesla will have to create some special shops that do nothing but support the after market.
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