Tesla has announced the official start of its in-house collision repair program after gradually launching some services over the years.
The program hopes to slash repair delays.
Tesla in-house collision repair
Some Tesla owners had been complaining about repair time after accidents for a long time, but it came back to the forefront of Tesla news back in 2017.
It can sometimes take months for repairs to be completed.
Tesla placed the fault on its third-party body shops, and the body shops are saying that it’s Tesla’s fault because of delays for parts.
At that time, Tesla moved some of its training programs online, and it looked to certify more equipment in order to offer more options to shops. After the changes, the automaker said it was “adding 300 body shops to its network.”
Despite those initiatives, Tesla owners have still reported some long wait times with third-party body shops after body damages.
In 2019, Tesla said that it would launch its own in-house “Body Repair Centers” to reduce repair time.
However, the program has been limited to small repairs, like “paint scuffs and scratches, minor dents as well as bumper, fender, door, side mirrors, and other bolt-on replacements.”
The program is expanding
Over the weekend, Tesla has been sending in-app notifications to owners to let them know that “collision repair is here.”
On top of the previously mentioned repairs, Tesla now lists some more extensive collision repairs:
Suspension and axle damage, front and rear bumpers, hoods, liftgate and side mirror caps, along with doors, wheels and all glass repair.
Owners can now schedule an appointment for those repairs directly through the Tesla app, and they will be performed in-house by Tesla technicians.
The automaker claims that it will result in an “optimized repair flow.”
Electrek‘s take
Hopefully, the program does what it says it does and reduces actual wait times.
Based on the reports I got from owners who got really nightmarish repair experiences, it seemed like the main problem was delays to get parts from Tesla and not as much the fault of the third-party shops in most cases.
As part of their in-house body repair program, the automaker said that they plan to keep some parts in inventory, which should help a lot.
On the business side of things, it’s pretty crazy that unlike other automakers, Tesla now not only owns the servicing of its vehicles through its own service centers, but it also owns the body repairs.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
