Tesla to Texas: How Do You Like Us Now?

[Broncojohnny]

Last article I read had the location narrowed down to San Antonio and Reno. With a very small chance that it would be near their other facility in California (meaning he was playing politics all along).

Funny it didn't say anything about east Texas.

[BP]

Issue becomes, during a natural disaster and you lose power, you lose your vehicle as well. I can store gas cans in the workshop, extra batteries are iffy

If that's really a concern for anyone buying a Tesla they can probably afford a backup propane or natural gas generator. Assuming they don't already have some kind of solar system. I'm sure you have an idea of what it costs to run a house off the grid, adding the load of charging an EV won't make much of a difference.

[jw33]

http://www.slashgear.com/expect-an-irate-call-if-you-try-to-hack-your-tesla-model-s-06323921/

Once upon a time it was a rite of passage for car lovers to get under the hood and tinker with the mechanics; in the modern world of EVs, that's been upgraded to hacking access to the computer systems, as one Tesla Model S owner discovered. Some investigation of a mysterious port turned out to be a hidden ethernet link into the Model S' internal communications system, as well as a shortcut to getting an irate call from Tesla itself warning owners not to fiddle lest they be accused of "industrial espionage".

The driver, a member of the Tesla Motors Club Forum, not only fashioned his own ethernet adapter to hook up to the port, but did some network sniffing too.

That revealed three peripherals on an internal network: the center console, the dashboard/navigation display, and an unknown third device. The type of data being communicated varies, from album art and track details for the currently-playing song, through to more complicated information that's in binary form.

After a little experimentation, the intrepid Model S explorer got Firefox running on the dashboard displays, though also managed to prompt a cautionary call from the Tesla service center. They said that Tesla's engineers had flagged "a tentative [attempt] of hacking" on the vehicle, and warned that messing with the diagnostics "can be related to industrial espionage and advised me to stop investigation, to not void the warranty."

Exactly whether this sort of analysis and modification is legal is a grey area of sorts, not to mention having some potentially serious safety implications. A late-2012 exemption to the DMCA made jailbreaking a smartphone legal, for instance, though having your phone crash on you is a little less dramatic than having your dashboard suddenly stop working properly.

It's possible that Tesla is attempting to avoid further security questions, such as those which arose last week when it was demonstrated that brute-force attacks - more commonly associated with internet account hacking - could break through the Model S' door security.

VIA Jalopnik
SOURCE Tesla Motors Club Forum

[8mpg]

Poor analogy since Amazon doesn't manufacture TV's, they are dealers and they still get their cut, just like fry's would. If you could buy directly from LG or samsung, then it could apply, but you can't.

So I only read to the 2nd page and this made me realize you have no clue what you are talking about. While his analogy isnt perfect, the idea or industry is a perfect example.

Let me show you some manufacturer direct sales:

https://www.dell.com

https://www.lenovo.com

https://www.apple.com

there are tons of place you can buy direct or go through a retailer. Forcing people to pay 10% more for a middleman should not be the governments business.

[aggie97]

So I only read to the 2nd page and this made me realize you have no clue what you are talking about. While his analogy isnt perfect, the idea or industry is a perfect example.

Let me show you some manufacturer direct sales:

https://www.dell.com

https://www.lenovo.com

https://www.apple.com

there are tons of place you can buy direct or go through a retailer. Forcing people to pay 10% more for a middleman should not be the governments business.

When that middleman is responsible for transferring title on a capital purchase that is "taxed" through yearly registration into the state DMV database....you bet your cookies the state will get involved. The state also makes money on the dealer license fee and they want to make DAMN sure they get their sales tax revenue. In this situation, its the Texas way of selling cars. If you let Tesla in the door to sell cars based outside of texas, there is no tax revenue. See the picture now?

[2011GT]

When that middleman is responsible for transferring title on a capital purchase that is "taxed" through yearly registration into the state DMV database....you bet your cookies the state will get involved. The state also makes money on the dealer license fee and they want to make DAMN sure they get their sales tax revenue. In this situation, its the Texas way of selling cars. If you let Tesla in the door to sell cars based outside of texas, there is no tax revenue. See the picture now?

Ugh yea there is still sales tax even if purchased from another state...

[jluv]

Damn, what a long thread. Forgive me if I missed the answers to my questions somewhere else in the thread. And I am genuinely trying to understand this, not argue. Maybe I'm missing something.

There will be no more driving up and buying your car today, you will have to custom order it and then wait on it to be made. This is an instant gratification world that we live in, I don't see customers being too happy about having to wait.

Why wouldn't there be retail locations eventually that are owned by the manufacturers? (like Apple stores)?

Next they're assuming that dealers will still be open for test drives, delivery, and service. If there is no money to be made, this will never happen. Even if they are open, dealer service fees are going to go through the fucking roof in response to losing the sales. Also if dealer service fees go higher, the independent mechanic shops will raise their rates.

Same question - why couldn't their be Tesla service locations? Aren't there any now? Wouldn't they just increase as the cars become more popular?

Regarding test drives, that goes back to my first question. I don't see why there wouldn't still be physical locations to test drive and buy these cars. Maybe not yet, but if/when it really takes off. It seems to me like they are just cutting out the middle man (for better or worse).

Trade in's will become a thing of the past, the manufacturers aren't going to store and sell them, so you had better be happy with your car, cause you're likely going to have it for a while.

The used market will either go sky high, or crazy low. I'm not exactly sure what would happen to the used market, I could see it going either way.

If there is money to be made with trade-ins, I imagine Tesla and other companies would take trade-ins and sell them to someone. And even if they don't, there would still be used car lots. You can sell used cars to places now without buying anything from them. How would that go away? It seems to me like the used car industry would not really be affected at all.

Lastly, the support businesses could go under/lose a lot of sales. Dealer supply stores, auctions, junkyards, auto trader, etc.

Why? How would these places be affected?

[aggie97]

From what I understand, Tesla tries to diagnose most of the issues through the internet connection to the car. Not many service shops for them and they have YET to build ANY of their battery hot swap stations. Apparently they lost an energy credit they could sell to OEM's like GM to meet CAFE requirements and better Tesla's bottom line. I read an article a few days ago that one the VP's at Tesla was asked why none have been built and he just told the interview, "I don't want to discuss that."

In that article they also mentioned that Tesla has slowed on installing it's charging stations due to high costs. Some of the first stations were $300,000 ea but they have been getting that down to $150,000 per location. Not sure why it costs so much to put in some damn electric power and cords with a few signs and concrete, but yikes!

[Cooter]

Part of the benefit of trading in is your save the tax on the value of the trade

Damn, what a long thread. Forgive me if I missed the answers to my questions somewhere else in the thread. And I am genuinely trying to understand this, not argue. Maybe I'm missing something.



Why wouldn't there be retail locations eventually that are owned by the manufacturers? (like Apple stores)?



Same question - why couldn't their be Tesla service locations? Aren't there any now? Wouldn't they just increase as the cars become more popular?

Regarding test drives, that goes back to my first question. I don't see why there wouldn't still be physical locations to test drive and buy these cars. Maybe not yet, but if/when it really takes off. It seems to me like they are just cutting out the middle man (for better or worse).



If there is money to be made with trade-ins, I imagine Tesla and other companies would take trade-ins and sell them to someone. And even if they don't, there would still be used car lots. You can sell used cars to places now without buying anything from them. How would that go away? It seems to me like the used car industry would not really be affected at all.



Why? How would these places be affected?

[8mpg]

When that middleman is responsible for transferring title on a capital purchase that is "taxed" through yearly registration into the state DMV database....you bet your cookies the state will get involved. The state also makes money on the dealer license fee and they want to make DAMN sure they get their sales tax revenue. In this situation, its the Texas way of selling cars. If you let Tesla in the door to sell cars based outside of texas, there is no tax revenue. See the picture now?

We bought a car out of Michigan... we paid 5% tax there and the remainder 1.5% or whatever it was here. We were told Michigan will transfer that tax money to Texas. You always pay tax.

You always have to pay registration, you always pay all those documenting fees and what not. Just because you cut out a middle man, you dont cut out paperwork and fees paid to the state.

[2011GT]

Part of the benefit of trading in is your save the tax on the value of the trade

Depends on state law. Oklahoma does not do this.

[Cooter]

Depends on state law. Oklahoma does not do this.

Oklahomans typically drive jalopies that aren't worth trading in anyhow, so that's a moot point

[bcoop]

Tesla just opened up all of their patents. While it doesn't have anything to do with them coming to TX, it will be interesting to see how other manufacturers react, and what innovation could potentially come from this.

[Ruffdaddy]

What do you mean opened up all their patents?

[bcoop]

What do you mean opened up all their patents?

They opened them up for other auto makers to use.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/tesla-motors-says-it-will-allow-others-to-use-its-patents-1402594375