Yahoo Autos Elon Musk, Driven "Crazy" by Outside Body Shops, Says He's Taking Tesla Repairs in House
Elon Musk, apparently dissatisfied with the way that third-party body shops repair Tesla vehicles, claimed yesterday on Twitter that Tesla will aim to complete most collision repairs at its own service facilities from now on.
Currently, Tesla operates nine of its own Body Repair Centers in various cities around the country and maintains a list of approved third-party body shops. However, Musk said, these outside shops take too long to complete repairs. He asserted that Tesla's own shops are starting to complete repairs within 24 hours.
Tesla does impose certain requirements on the approved body shops that may slow down the process-as freelance journalist Bozi Tatarevic pointed out on Twitter, an official Tesla service document states that third-party body shops can only submit two parts orders per vehicle. Another part of that document also states that approved body shops must follow a checklist that includes dismantling the entire vehicle, removing "every part, nut bolt, fastener, clip, piece of trim, glass, etc.," and must send blueprints of the repair to Tesla to get approval before starting work.
This would seem to make it difficult for outside shops to complete repairs within 24 hours-not to mention within the same day or within a single hour, as Musk has claimed Tesla Body Repair Centers will soon be able to do. Of course, time to completion will likely vary with each vehicle that comes in for repairs, based on the severity of damage and other factors. Tesla's own shops also have the advantage of having the company's parts in stock and being able to focus on only three models: the Model S, Model X, and Model 3.
It remains to be seen whether Musk's statement on Twitter is an indication that Tesla is going to open more Body Repair Centers. The nine current locations are in the metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
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