Author | Ramen Ann
Recently, Tesla's first directly operated sheet metal spray center in Shanghai Pudong was officially opened. This is the second and largest directly operated sheet metal spray center in Shanghai.
It is understood that in the early stage, this store will mainly focus on the responsibilities of the sheet metal spray center, improve the efficiency of the car, pay attention to the quality of maintenance; in the later stage, it will give full play to the location advantage, further expand the service radius to the outer ring, Hulu, Shenjiahu Yingbin Expressway and other areas, and build a steady "three-legged" Shanghai after-sales service with the Hongqiao Service Center and Xiangyang Service Center located in Minhang District, bringing thoughtful and professional all-round after-sales service to Shanghai Tesla owners.
So far, Tesla has completed the layout of 13 directly operated sheet metal spray centers nationwide.
The layout of "Tesla Directly Operated Sheet Metal Spray Center" is current
Since the end of last year, Tesla has begun to accelerate the layout of direct sheet metal spray business across the country, and this year it has opened 10 direct sheet metal spray centers.
After more than a year of development, the logical prototype of Tesla's layout of the directly operated sheet metal spray center has been presented.
First of all, the layout area is concentrated, and the core layout is in the new first-tier and second-tier cities.
Take a closer look at the 12 cities where the directly operated sheet metal spray center is currently located: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou, Fujian Quanzhou, Nanchang, Ningbo, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Tianjin, Beijing. These cities, whether it is the size of the economy, the size of the population or the number of cars, are at the forefront of the country.
Secondly, the rules for the landing of outlets are consistent, which is highly overlapping with the "Tesla Center".
Compared with the addresses, of the 13 Tesla directly operated sheet metal spray centers currently open, 12 of which have a high degree of overlap with the local Tesla center (11 addresses are completely consistent, 1 address is 1.3 kilometers apart), and only Beijing Shunyi directly operated sheet metal spray center (soft operation) is completely independent in address.
The reason for such a network layout is not difficult to understand, and the directly operated sheet metal spray center and the Tesla center are put together to better provide one-stop service for car owners to pick up cars and maintain cars.
Third, due to the first two layout conditions: city level, and the high requirements for site size, the layout of Tesla's directly operated sheet metal spray center shows certain site selection characteristics: all are located in automotive business circles or industrial zones.
This is not difficult to understand. The core is the result of considering the cost of the site and the degree of matching of the site.
Finally, the current 13 directly operated sheet metal spray centers, the first few are "original site expansion", and the latter several are "(Tesla Center + Tesla directly operated sheet metal spray center) new store opening".
Combined with the investment requirements of Tesla's authorized sheet metal spray center, the required space for Tesla's sheet metal spray business is not less than 2,000 square meters, and the requirements for direct operation of sheet metal spray center are only high and not low. Coupled with the characteristics of the front "highly coinciding with the Tesla center", the site requirements are even higher.
Among the 13 direct-operated sheet metal spray centers that have landed, many supporting Tesla centers have been open for a long time, such as Shanghai Minhang, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other cities, so the direct-operated sheet metal spray centers in these places have been expanded on the basis of the original Tesla center. The latter few, such as Huizhou and Shenzhen, are "new store openings", which already include the site demand of "Tesla Center + Tesla Direct-operated Sheet Metal Spray Center" in the network planning stage.
Completely replace the "Authorized Sheet Metal Spray Center"?
Before the landing of Tesla's direct sheet metal spray center, the general pattern of after-sales business including Tesla and the entire team of new car-making forces was almost the same - the mechanical and electrical business was self-operated, and the authorized core of the sheet metal spray and other businesses was given to the independent after-sales comprehensive repair factory.
Since 2014, the cooperation model between Tesla and independent after-sales in the sheet metal spray business has become increasingly mature, especially with After-sales chains such as Huasheng, Zhongxin Zhibao, Gretel, and Xingzhongde. Auto Services World has also reported that "the first batch of Tesla sheet metal spray authorized stores have harvested the fruits of the harvest."
Therefore, when Tesla, the leader of the "direct operation model", announced and began to accelerate the layout of the direct-operated sheet metal spray center, some industry insiders predicted that Tesla is recovering the outsourced sheet metal spray link, and its after-sales service may also completely adopt the direct operation model.
In the light of the current stage of development, this forecast may not be accurate.
First of all, Tesla's action does not show the characteristics of "completely adopting the direct operation mode after-sales".
In 2021, although Tesla accelerated the layout of the direct-operated sheet metal spray center, the development of the authorized sheet metal spray center did not fall.
At the strategic level, Tesla's official website is still continuing to recruit authorized sheet metal spray centers, opening up to more than 40 cities, and putting forward not low requirements for the applicant's industry experience, location location, infrastructure, etc.
Screenshot from: Tesla China
In terms of landing results, auto service world statistics found that since January 2021, Tesla has added about 40 authorized sheet metal spray centers.
Up to now, the total number of Tesla authorized sheet metal spray centers has exceeded 130. (As of January 2021, this figure is 92)
The view of the automotive service world is that in the future, more cities will open Tesla's direct sheet metal spray centers, but authorized sheet metal spray centers still occupy the mainstream.
The domestic new energy vehicle market is still in the early stage of development, coupled with policy support, more and more entrants, traditional car companies are not far behind, the competition will not be small.
In this case, the pattern of the head camp of new energy vehicle companies is still not stable, and Tesla cannot and will not blindly deploy a large number of direct sheet metal spray centers in the short term, let alone replace the authorized sheet metal spray centers. No matter how high the profitability, the risk is too great.
However, Tesla will accelerate the layout of the direct sheet metal spray center to a certain extent.
Based on the characteristics of the high degree of overlap between the directly operated sheet metal spray center and the "Tesla Center", and then comprehensively considering the three major costs of site, manpower and operation, a preliminary conclusion can be drawn.
Tesla will still have a more targeted layout of "directly operated sheet metal spray center" and "authorized sheet metal spray center".
In the future, the core of the direct-operated sheet metal spray center will be distributed in "1-line, new 1-line and 2-line" cities, and only the number of Tesla car owners in these cities can cover the high investment of the direct-operated model;
In the future, the 3nd and 4th tier cities will still be dominated by "authorized sheet metal spray centers", which is also an opportunity point for independent after-sales.
The only way to rebuild the 4S model
Why is it judged that Tesla will accelerate the layout of the direct operation of the sheet metal spray center? There are four main reasons.
One is that the accident car business has a higher profit margin.
Industry information pointed out that under the procurement channel of Tesla's controlled accessories, the net profit rate of the authorized sheet metal spray center is about 20%. If in the direct operation mode, because the accessories price system is already in the hands of Tesla, in the abandonment of the "middleman" of the repair shop, the profitability will only be stronger.
The second is to better protect the owner experience, high customer satisfaction, combined with the aftermarket in the past two years of popular "customer-centric" underlying logic, the economic benefits are more long-term.
Behind Tesla's scenery, the most criticized is Tesla's after-sales service is not grounded.
Previously, in the Tesla female car owner rights protection incident, the "rice circle flavor" in Tesla's various channels has really caused a lot of controversy. The negative impact of this controversy is that although the car sells well, the technical power of the after-sales service has not yet had time to get out of the circle, and the word of mouth is hovering on the verge of collapse.
Since the establishment of the direct-operated sheet metal spray center in the second half of 2020, the technical strength of Tesla's after-sales service has begun to improve.
In 2021, Tesla's maintenance efficiency in China increased by 74% compared with 2018. The 3-year increase of 74% is indeed a recognition of this level.
In 2021, Tesla's customer satisfaction in China will reach 98%, and the one-time repair rate will reach 97%.
Today, when consumers' requirements for services are gradually increasing, the advantages of the direct operation model to better protect the service experience have begun to stand out.
The third is that in the past two years, Tesla's channel layout logic in the domestic market has undergone obvious changes.
Researchers in the field of new energy, Che'an Ren'an, analyzed the characteristics of Tesla's channels in the first half of 2021 and summarized the changes in Tesla's direct-operated stores: 1-tier cities adjusted the store type structure; new 1-tier and 2-tier cities strengthened the number of stores; and 3-tier cities slowly expanded.
The layout of Tesla's direct sales of sheet metal spray centers and authorized sheet metal spray center areas analyzed above is also based on this change in the logic of channel layout.
In addition to the change in the logic of channel layout, Tesla was also exposed in August this year that it is quietly returning to the traditional 4S store model.
At that time, a person familiar with the matter revealed: "Tesla is now looking for venues near the traditional car business circle, and has found many investors from traditional car dealers to negotiate, wanting to rent their venues and build outlets of 'front shop and back factory'." The front showroom can be experienced and sold, and the back space is used for maintenance. ”
Looking at the layout characteristics of Tesla's direct-operated sheet metal spray center and Tesla center, it is undoubtedly completely in line with the new car sales + after-sales service integration model of "front store and rear factory".
Although the form is similar to the traditional car 4S store, Tesla still adopts the direct operation model, and the newly built after-sales outlets such as direct sales sheet metal spray are managed by the supporting Tesla center, and all Tesla centers are directly managed by Tesla.
"Che'an Ren'an" calls Tesla's layout "the ultimate 4S store form".
Once Tesla runs through this model, the "ultimate 4S store form" is likely to be adopted and expanded by other new energy vehicle companies.
Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Joint Association, also pointed out in an interview with the media: "New energy manufacturers build their own service centers, integrate sheet metal and delivery and other service functions, and integrate these service centers into a trend." ”
Next National Chain?
As mentioned earlier, Tesla will accelerate the construction of directly operated sheet metal spray centers, but it will not give up the layout of authorized sheet metal spray centers.
In the case that the licensing cooperation model has matured and the direct operation model continues to land, let's talk about the bold conjecture that was once there: With the continuous growth of Tesla and new energy vehicle sales, is it possible for Tesla to create a new national sheet metal spray chain?
The automotive service world has done some analysis and the answer is: there is still, and the possibility is even greater.
From the perspective of the volume of the sales end, Tesla's expansion of the direct operation of the sheet metal spray center is sufficient.
From January to November 2021, Tesla delivered more than 400,000 units, especially in the second half of the year, Tesla's sales soared, so far, Tesla has sold more than 50,000 units for three consecutive months. The momentum is indeed fierce.
In the case of a rapid increase in ownership, the demand for sheet metal spray services for car owners naturally rises, and it is logical to increase the number of sheet metal spray center outlets.
And regardless of direct operation or authorization, Tesla's after-sales system is always highly closed, and the efficiency of operation management and profitability have always been relatively high.
In addition, Tesla's direct operation of the sheet metal spray center model has now run for a year, showing some characteristics that make the auto service world think: If one day, Tesla wants to split its sheet metal spray business into independent and chain development, the feasibility is not low.
First, the existing scale.
13 directly operated stores, 130+ authorized stores, and related profitability data, which is far beyond the scale of the sheet metal spray chain before the aftermarket.
Second, a unified national maintenance price system.
In February this year, Tesla's national unified maintenance price list was made public. These commonly used maintenance items, as well as parts, mechanical and electrical maintenance prices, the price of all Tesla stores in the country remains uniform, and there will be no traditional car dealer 4S shop model of one store price, or even one car one price, which is unique in the domestic automotive industry.
With unified pricing and price transparency across the country, coupled with considerable profitability, such a chain foundation is not bad.
Third, standardized, replicable venues/facilities and facilities.
Judging from the Reuters photo, Tesla's direct-operated sheet metal spray center is indeed a workshop built to a high standard. And the space structure is clear, equipped with a number of independent special maintenance workshops, including machine repair sheet metal workshop, aluminum body grinding room, high-end painting room, medium painting room, etc., the relevant facilities are also standard unified.
Fourth, the unique salary system can eliminate "excessive marketing" as much as possible, and the standardization of service experience level is more likely.
Tesla's sheet metal spray system already has a variety of standardized manuals. According to Reuters, automotive service world believes that the most distinctive feature is its compensation system.
Some media reported that under the "Tesla direct after-sales" model, there is a commission system different from the traditional 4S store. The salary of the after-sales center employees is not directly related to the number of repair orders or the amount of repairs, so there will be no unnecessary sales to the owner. Tesla employees reflected that they will try to help car owners check some hidden problems, and strive to let car owners enter the store at once to solve multiple problems and improve after-sales efficiency.
Finally, Tesla's after-sales service system itself has a high degree of online and offline integration.
Tesla's after-sales service system is divided into four modules: physical service center (110+ homes), self-operated/authorized sheet metal spray center (150+), virtual service center, and 400 customer service.
At present, Tesla has developed an online App reservation function, and will also optimize the mobile service (on-site service), when the owner encounters a problem, he can contact the staff through 400 customer service or enterprise WeChat; the technician of the virtual service center will remotely diagnose the vehicle, further solve questions and answer questions in real time, or repair some problems through OTA to save time and cost.
The core of the above content is to discuss whether it is possible for one or more national sheet metal spray maintenance chains to emerge in the aftermarket, and there must be biased or inaccurate thinking. If you have more views, bosses are welcome to discuss Ha in the comment area.
Reference Articles:
Che'an Ren'an: The development trend of Tesla's authorized sheet metal spray center in 2021
Che'an Ren'an: Tesla channel characteristics change in the first half of 2021
Securities Times Network: Exploring Tesla's direct operation of sheet metal spray center New energy vehicle dealers compete for after-sales cake
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Article from: The World of Car Service
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