A friend in the industry sent along word of an interesting business model innovation from electric car pioneer Tesla. The company is now offering to send roving mechanics, or “service rangers,” to its customers on house calls as needed for diagnosis, maintenance, and repair work at the rate of a buck per mile traveled. This "geek squad" for cars makes the experience of owning a (still extremely pricey) Tesla more convenient and more secure, and it keeps Tesla from having to build out a nationwide network of service centers.
Tesla’s cars are pretty wired – a central computer monitors all systems and produces diagnostic reports – which should make on-the-spot service easier. Furthermore, electric cars are much simpler machines than their gas-powered brethren; the powertrain is much cleaner and more streamlined. There is no need for oil, spark plugs, hoses, pistons, etc, so there is less that can go wrong and less need for a full-on garage for many repairs. Finally, unlike the established automotive companies, Tesla is not encumbered by a pre-existing dealer / servicer network and therefore has the ability to innovate its maintenance model in interesting ways like this one.
Taking a step back, this is another in a series of intriguing moves by Tesla to go beyond simply providing a very cool but very expensive electric car to focusing on the customer’s entire experience of use. In addition to this servicing concept, the company has also started providing charging stations to its customers. We have long touted the comprehensive system of electric mobility that Better Place is constructing (most recently in the Harvard Business Review, here) as a key step towards enabling the electric vehicle revolution, and we have issued warnings about Tesla’s strategy of targeting the high end of the market out of the gate. But if Tesla can continue moving towards a Better Place-lite comprehensive value proposition, and if it can successfully launch lower-priced models as it promises, Tesla may find itself making an awful lot of house calls in the years ahead.
