- I visited a Tesla showroom and Mercedes-Benz dealership in New York City to observe the differences between their sales models.
- Tesla's store used innovative design strategies and revealed an eagerness to sell a vision of the brand beyond its vehicles.
- The Mercedes-Benz dealership took a more traditional, less expansive approach to selling cars and its brand.
As established automakers move toward electrification, Tesla will compete more directly with traditional luxury brands like Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.
Until now, Tesla has had limited competition in the fully-electric luxury space, but that will change in the next decade as auto companies plan to electrify a larger percentage of their offerings. As that happens, Tesla will have new challenges to face, and the viability of its unique sales model will become clearer.
Unlike most auto companies, Tesla sells its cars to consumers directly, rather than licensing its brand to independent dealerships. That gives Tesla more control over how it presents its vehicles and interacts with customers over time, but it would also make it more difficult and costly to achieve the kind of scale some of its competitors have. And Tesla has fought legal battles for the right to sell its vehicles directly to consumers in some states, like Connecticut and New Mexico, where it's currently prohibited from doing so.
Tesla's stores also look different than traditional car dealerships, using minimalist designs that echo innovative retail companies like Apple and Warby Parker. Tesla's stores could end up influencing how other auto companies sell their cars - or remain high-profile outliers.
I visited a Tesla showroom and Mercedes-Benz dealership in New York City to see the differences between how a relatively new and established luxury brand sell their cars. My time in each revealed contrasting sales models that spoke to the fundamental differences between Tesla and some of its competitors.
Here's what I saw.
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