Influx

Tesla, the electric car darling, is determined to re-engineer
not just the concept and workings of the car, but also the buying
experience.

They openly admit to modeling their new dealerships on Apple and
Starbucks and good restaurants where you can see the chef working.

Here’s what they plan to do:

-    The overall concept is Tesla dealerships as VIP Lounges
-    The service area will be front and center, not out the back. Since
the technology is clean, visitors will be able to see the techs working
on the cars
-    Techs are company shareholders and are assigned by name to customers
-    Install comfortable lounge areas, with free Wi-Fi, coffee, snacks and flat screens
-    No salespeople, just assistants to help with information and assist the purchase, rather than “sell” it

Tesla’s stores will open in Los Angeles and Bay Area stores in the
fourth quarter, followed by New York, Chicago, and Miami in the first
quarter of 2008.

However, the designers have yet to be chosen and the company is open to suggestions and ideas from customers and prospects.

There’s nothing extremely radical in this “brief”. Most luxury
dealerships are already doing most of this, the big difference is
putting the tech/service center and the technicians front and center,
this will create a new type of experience. Hopefully, the design
companies pitching this project will come up with ideas that stretch
the “brief” a little bit.

Something obvious Tesla has to do is to make sure these dealerships are
the “greenest” they can possibly be, their customers will expect
nothing less.

Via Autoblog