Thousands Of Tesla Owners Are Having Their Cars Fixed At GM Dealers

Nov. 19, 2022 7:41 PM ET by Karl Furlong Industry News / 8 Comments

GM's traditional dealer network is a way to circumvent long wait times at Tesla service centers.

It's no secret that Tesla has improvements to make to its service departments, especially when it comes to long waiting times. One unexpected silver lining of this situation has found its way to General Motors. At its investor day in New York City this week, GM said that fixing Teslas has become a growing business. In fact, since last year, GM dealers have fixed over 11,000 Tesla models.

While the typical Tesla Model S owner probably wouldn't want to pull up alongside a humble Chevy Spark to have their car fixed, that concern falls away if it means the job can be done quickly and efficiently. Thanks to GM's far superior dealer and service network, it can.

"That's a growing business for us," said GM President Mark Reuss according to Barron's. "I gotta say it's a new business."

GM claims that every American lives within 10 miles of one of its dealerships, something that Tesla simply can't boast about. Tesla is at a further disadvantage due to the fact that it doesn't have traditional dealerships. Coupled with the fact that Teslas are selling in incredibly high numbers, it's little wonder that Elon Musk's company has struggled to keep up with aftersales services, opening the door for GM.

While Tesla's lack of traditional dealerships results in extra profit from each vehicle sale, GM proves that the old-school dealership network still has its advantages.

GM is slowly but surely upgrading its dealerships with its own network of EV chargers, another benefit for EV owners who are happy to have their cars repaired at a non-Tesla dealer.

In September, Musk boldly proclaimed - as he so often does - that Tesla would offer same-hour servicing for customers. Yet at around the same time, some customers were complaining that their scheduled servicing appointments were being pushed back by up to a month. With wait times like that, it's not surprising that over 11,000 tesla customers have visited a GM service center to have their cars repaired.

Musk said not long ago that he is "putting a lot of time personally into advancing Tesla service to make it awesome," but until that actually happens, it's rival brands like GM that stand to benefit.