Tesla is working to appease some European leasing companies after the automaker’s repeated retail price cuts tanked their fleets’ value and its slow service and expensive repairs alienated their corporate customers.
The efforts include unofficial discounts on purchases of new cars if they are in stock and efforts to address widespread service, repair and ordering complaints after years in which fleet managers and leasing firms say Tesla has ignored those problems, according to interviews with nine executives from major leasing and rental-car firms, along with about a dozen corporate fleet managers.
Tesla’s retail price cuts aimed to bolster sales in response to softening electric-vehicle demand globally and rising competition, especially from Chinese EV makers such as BYD. But that damaged the bottom lines of its biggest customers in Europe — where fleet purchases represent nearly half of auto sales.