Tesla’s two West Midlands sites are under threat after chief executive Elon Musk announced plans to move sales online.<\/p>\n
The electric car manufacturer has showrooms in Digbeth and Solihull as part of a 19-store network in the UK. Only a “small number of stores in high-traffic locations” will survive the shift in global strategy.<\/p>\n
It has been struggling in recent months to deliver on its ambitions, with challenges caused by manufacturing capacity, the car’s cost price and Musk’s occasionally-erratic public behaviour.<\/p>\n
In an email to staff, Musk revealed Tesla will “shift all sales worldwide to online only”.<\/p>\n
He said: “Last year, 78% of all Model 3 orders were placed online, rather than in a store, and 82% of customers bought their Model 3 without ever having taken a test drive.<\/p>\n
“Shifting all sales online, combined with other ongoing cost efficiencies, will enable us to lower all vehicle prices by about 6% on average, allowing us to achieve the $35,000 Model 3 price point earlier than we expected.<\/p>\n
“Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores, with a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Electric car manufacturer plans to shift sales online<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1735257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-2026950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-property","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n