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Tesla boss Musk on Monday in Grünheide: "Very high sales pressure".
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
With his surprise visits to Germany, Elon Musk regularly causes excitement.
According to media reports, young people and camera teams lurked him around the factory premises in Grünheide in Brandenburg on Monday.
A photographer managed a snapshot that showed the multibillionaire a little blurry in the passenger seat of a rolling white Tesla.
Musk later stepped in front of the cameras wearing a white hardhat.
The Tesla boss visited the construction site of the car plant, which was originally supposed to be ready in the summer.
However, the start has now been postponed, probably to the end of the year.
And that is not the only German problem that is currently worrying the electric car pioneer, who has recently been spoiled for success.
According to an analysis by the Duisburg-based CAR-Center Automotive Research, Tesla has increased sales of its vehicles in this country since 2019, but has lost significant market share.
Between the first quarters of 2019 and 2021, the proportion fell from 20 percent to 7.4 percent.
The competition has meanwhile woken up
The obvious reason: two years ago the market for electric cars was still very small, and the technology pioneer had a unique position. In the meantime, the number of new registrations of electric vehicles has skyrocketed, but the competition has also woken up. Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler also bring numerous electric vehicles onto the market. In the first four months of the year, VW rose to become the market leader for e-cars in Germany - and thus overtook Tesla and Renault.
So far, Tesla has mainly addressed wealthier buyers, so-called early adopters, who consciously wanted to get involved with a new type of vehicle.
They were able to view and configure the e-limousines in high-quality mini-stores in central inner-city locations.
The order was then placed over the Internet.
Tesla also set up service centers on the outskirts of metropolitan areas.
This sales strategy was very successful, and a number of manufacturers tried to copy it.
But that shouldn't be enough in the long run.
After all, Tesla wants to develop from an electrical pioneer into a global mass manufacturer.
And that could be difficult.
"Tesla has a very stable customer group that is very technically savvy," writes CAR Director Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, who had rated Tesla very positively in previous analyzes.
It is questionable, however, "whether the spark of the big technology fans spills over to the majority of motorists who value more classic properties such as longevity, quality, safety, comfort." According to Dudenhöffer, these include buyers of conventional mass models such as the VW Golf and Passat or Toyota Corolla.
Tesla is now breaking new ground in order to open up a broader range of customers.
The US manufacturer wants to get closer to customers in Germany and offer them more points of contact than before.
In doing so, he also takes measures that differ greatly from the previous exclusive sales strategy.
Tesla's promotion campaign at Tchibo caused astonishment.
Tesla's Model 3 electric car has recently been offered for subscription at the coffee dealer, whose range also includes underwear and kitchenware.
The action attracted a great deal of attention, but according to Dudenhöffer it harbors the risk of "slipping into a junky image".
For premium brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes or Porsche, sales channels like Tchibo, Aldi or Lidl are an “absolute no-go”.
In addition, Musk's team has opened so-called Tesla Centers in earlier car dealerships of established manufacturers such as Peugeot or Porsche.
According to Dudenhöffer, these are "less attractive and successful locations" that were given up by the previous operators precisely for this reason.
Pop-up stores in the »takeaway look«
Tesla's sales centers are complemented by temporary mini customer centers, so-called pop-up stores, for example in an industrial area in Duisburg.
Customers can take test drives there and find out about other Tesla offers such as the Supercharger network.
In terms of their appearance, however, the stores are more reminiscent of kiosks than posh Tesla stores, Dudenhöffer speaks of a “takeaway look”.
In his opinion, such sales outlets hardly fit the strong, highly innovative brand.
"The sales campaigns, which appear less than systematic," the economist concluded, "suggest that there is very high sales pressure."
