Tesla adding service centres for Model 3

DETROIT — Electric carmaker Tesla is expanding its service operations and hiring more than 1,000 technicians to meet expected demand for its new Model 3 sedan.

The Model 3, cheaper than Tesla’s existing cars, goes on sale this month and is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of new customers to the brand.

To accommodate them, the company is adding 100 new service centres worldwide over the next year, bringing its total number of service centres to 250. The new service centres will be in areas that have the most reservation-holders for the Model 3.

Tesla also is adding 350 vans to its mobile service fleet, mostly in the U.S. The vans go to owners’ homes or offices and repair their cars while they wait, typically for about one hour. The vans are equipped with tools and replacement parts as well as an espresso machine, snacks and kids’ toys.

Like its stores, which are owned by the company and not by franchised dealers, Tesla has upended the auto industry with its service model. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said several years ago that unlike traditional dealerships, Tesla didn’t intend to make a profit on service and repairs. U.S. dealers made $110 billion in service and parts sales last year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

Unlike traditional dealers, Tesla also doesn’t want customers to have to go to a service centre for repairs that can be done remotely.

The company says 80 per cent of repairs to its cars, including replacing the tires or fixing electronic glitches, can be done without a lift, which means it’s just as easy to perform them out of a mobile repair van. That leaves service centres free to concentrate on more complicated repairs.