Tesla enhances fleet offering with new initiatives and appointment

Tesla has become a behemoth in the fleet sector in the 10 years since it entered the UK: its Model Y was the best-selling car in the true fleet sector last year, while in March it reached the milestone of 200,000 vehicles delivered to customers.

This made it responsible for one in five BEVS on UK roads. The success has continued this year: at the end of Q1 2024, Model Y held on to its top spot in true fleet, with Model 3 in third position.

However, it has not all been plain sailing. Even though true fleet currently accounts for around 80% of its UK registrations, earlier this year the manufacturer acknowledged areas for improvement in how it works with fleets after concerns were raised about the brand by multiple UK operators.

It has now introduced a number of initiatives to address these as well as pledging greater transparency in the future.

Measures include the launch of a Tesla for Business platform and this month it appointed Mark Smith (pictured) as its head of fleet sales and certified pre-owned.

“As a business, we’re very much retail-focused globally and the UK market is unique in its set-up in comparison to the rest of our markets as fleet registrations are a large proportion of our sales here,” says Tim Findlay, regional director for the UK, Ireland and Middle East.

“This has meant our initial few years in the UK have been challenging in terms of how we make that transition to more of a fleet-focused set-up.

“For us, change is by far the most consistent thing in Tesla and over the past couple of years, our systems and how we approach the fleet market have changed a lot.

“We’re trying to gain more focus on stability within the UK market, be more consistent in our positions, our line-ups and how we also provide that connection with the B2B market.”

Smith, who was previously the brand’s used car lead, will be fully responsible for all Tesla’s external commercial relationships as well as full ownership of its in-house certified pre-owned network and team directly reporting into him to support driving retail used sales.

The certified pre-owned programme will sell used Tesla cars built from 2018 onwards and up to 90,000 miles. This is currently available at eight locations, with a plan to increase this to 10.

Using in-house refurbishment teams, the manufacturer says the programme will build confidence in its used cars, control residual values and give customers peace of mind that the vehicle has been refurbished by a Tesla technician.

“We’re being very open about this as well,” says Smith. “We’re inviting people to come to our refurbishment sites and see our processes so they can see what that looks like for their cars that they have on their fleet.

“Obviously we’ve been a disrupter in the market, but we want to add value in there as well.

“It’s important we look at the new and used car markets and how we can help both sides together.

“We want to help support what happens when new cars come back at the end-of-life, maybe after that first lease.

“Maybe they go into the certified pe-owned programme, or we can support funders in terms of second-life leasing and help them with the refurbishment piece to give that car more avenues to basically attract more customers.

“We want to drive affordability: we really want to come back to the mission and that is how we make it more affordable for customers to join the Tesla family, and certainly certified pre-owned gives us the option to do that.”

Tesla for Business portal

The manufacturer has also introduced its Tesla for Business portal, which is “almost a fleet management tool as much as it is anything else”, adds Smith.

The goal is to provide visibility for fleet managers and leasing partners. It allows users to track vehicles from ordering to supporting the vehicle post-delivery as well. Drivers can be added or removed for app access, while other information such as mileage can be seen.

The portal will also aim to give fleets greater visibility over servicing and maintenance, which is usually booked by the driver through the Tesla app.

"At the moment we have our Tesla centre network, which is owned and run by us, and you can normally get an appointment for a service within a couple of days in most of our locations across the UK," says Findlay.

"Drivers use the Telsa app to make those appointments, so we have to make sure we can provide the visibility to fleet managers and leasing companies around those requests are being made.

"We want to give them live insight into those appointments - which is currently the missing part - and we are also looking at what improvements we can make through the app experience to better serve leasing companies and fleet managers so they can have better control around what services drivers can choose.

"The Tesla app is more designed for the retail journey at this point, but we're making that transition to better serve fleets and leasing companies through the Tesla for Business portal."

Findlay says Tesla wants to continually improve the portal and is consulting with leasing and fleet management companies to find out, for example, how it can be better integrated with their systems or other ways the service can be enhanced.

“The only way we can improve the user experience is to get on-the-ground feedback and we’re working very closely with the development team internally about how we can make potential changes to the tool that will allow fleet users to get the most out of it,” he adds.

Smith says: “We’re really focused on being more transparent and open in this space as well, spending more time with them, sharing what our plans and strategies are, but also listening to them and understand what is working or if they have any blockers.

“We move incredibly quickly. We’re very integrated internally which means we can pivot fast to support them in any areas.”

Last month. Fleet News’ sister title AM reported Tesla was expanding its roadside assistance and service centre operations to seven days a week after criticism was levelled at the speed of servicing Tesla models.

The brand currently has 35 sales and service locations across the UK and Northern Ireland, and 16 self-serve test drive locations, while a new trial for mobile tyre replacement services is being launched in select regions, with plans for nationwide expansion if successful.

“We’re testing to make sure we can scale that up,” says Findlay. “Then we’ll be looking to increase the types of mobile repairs we can do.

“Currently, more than 50% of our repairs are done by Tesla mobile service at someone’s workplace or home, and we are increasing the number of repairs that can be done this way.

“The goal will be to keep cars on the road and for them not to visit a service centre apart from as a last resort.”

Tesla’s offering also includes its Supercharger network of more than 1,400 public EV chargers at 140 sites in the UK and Ireland, with Findlay saying this will “grow in line with the size of our Tesla fleet in the UK”.

In April it announced a new pricing structure for the network, following the introduction of a new membership model for its customers.