Wall Street Journal: Traditional automakers are starting to emulate Tesla's retail strategy

Posted on
16 March 2022
By
Matt Pressman

Tesla’s online approach to selling direct-to-consumer is inspiring others. According to the Wall Street Journal, “As car companies go electric, some are trying to gain control from dealers over how those vehicles will be priced and sold, aiming to make the experience closer to the direct-selling models used by Tesla.”

Above: Tesla’s Model X (Twitter: Tesla Greater China,

“We looked at the competition that went before us, and clearly it is primarily Tesla. They built this online-order system,” said VW US sales chief Ray Mikiuk. Stock for Electric ID.4 has relied entirely on online ordering instead of shipping out to dealer lots.

“The additional cost of electrification cannot be paid by the consumer,” Stelantis CEO Carlos Tavares said. Therefore, he is working on a new retail model (one that involves less dealer involvement), which he describes as a “direct-sales approach” to electric vehicles.

“EV Customers Are Not Like Us” [internal-combustion-engine] customer,” Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley said during an investor conference last month. He’s looking for customers to place factory-direct orders at no bargain prices. Dealerships will still be involved but mostly just for delivering vehicles.

In the meantime, “GM needs to follow similar guidelines to sell its recently introduced Hummer electric pickup trucks to its GMC-branded dealers. Hummers ordered by customers will be shipped through the medium,” according to a GM spokesperson.

So why is Big Auto emulating Tesla’s disruptive retail approach? According to the WSJ,Tesla sells online directly to customers… [and] The success of Tesla’s retailing strategy is increasingly threatening traditional car companies, which are trying to increase EV sales while selling through independent dealerships.”

It is reported, “Auto executives see the industry pivot to EVs as an opportunity to modernize the kind in which Americans have bought cars for generations.” In turn, “car executives emphasize that the process needs to be simplified and more digital.”

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Source: Wall Street Journal

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Electric Vehicles, Ford, GM, Tesla, Tesla News, TSLA, Volkswagen

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