George Blankenship
Tesla Motors has opened its first factory store, in a new extension of the Yorkdale shopping mall in North Toronto. Just prior to the location’s official opening, Canadian auto dealer was invited to talk with George Blankenship, Tesla’s vice president of Sales and Ownership Experience, the man largely credited with the firm’s controversial retail strategy and also Hans Ulsrud, Tesla’s National Sales manager for Canada.
“The retail experience, like our whole approach, is different,” says Ulsrud. “The purpose of having the stores in mall locations is more about educating customers, to help them understand why driving an electric car is the best choice.” The Yorkdale location and two others Tesla will soon open, in Montreal and Vancouver, along with a central service centre in each location, follow a similar format to the firm’s U.S. mall outlets, where besides learning more about the car, customers can browse colours and options for the Model S as well as choose accessories and lifestyle items. According to Ulsrud, while customers can’t actually purchase a car at the store, nor take delivery, they can arrange a test drive. At Yorkdale, Tesla will have dedicated parking spots where cars will be kept ready for those wanting to experience one on the road. “We partly chose this location because there is a lot of varied driving conditions in the area,” says Ulsrud, “so customers will get the chance to experience the Model S under different scenarios.”
He also says that by having factory stores and an online sales process, Tesla is able to fully control the customer buying experience and make it more enjoyable. “There is no pressure to sell from inventory,” he says, “every car is custom ordered right from the factory in Fremont, Calif. and we control every step of the process.”
George Blankenship, the former Apple executive who created that brand’s retail concept and is now working on Tesla’s says the upstart EV maker wants to turn the concept of vehicle ownership and purchasing on its head. “What is unique about our situation is that we want to engage people when they are not thinking about buying a car. None of our staff are on commission, we just want to talk to people who come in. Most who will come into this store at least initially, won’t know about the car or that it’s electric, so it’s our job to educate them, to show them an electric car makes sense and it is better, for them and also the environment. Right now it’s a bit like the scenario when Apple first introduced the iPod. Nobody knew what it was at the time, now everybody does.”
