Tesla pivots ‘untrained’ service workers over to sales for Q3 push

Tesla is moving employees around again and transferring service workers back to the sales department to facilitate an end-of-quarter sales push.

Last year, sources reported that the electric vehicle company moved untrained sales workers into the service department in response to customer complaints about long wait times, especially in North American markets. At the time, Tesla stated they were launching an effort to “revolutionize” service with larger centers and an increase in specialization.

Now, Tesla is slowly starting to move many of those workers back to their positions in sales as the company is trying to reach sales goals by the end of the quarter. Musk has previously stated that Tesla would try to move away from a model that results in end-of-quarter pushes for deliveries. But according to the CEO, last quarter was another “nutty” one.

The problem could stem from several factors. First, sources say that Tesla’s Model 3 and Model S production volumes will likely be higher than its sales backlog. Secondly, the EV maker is struggling with many customers attempting to delay orders until 2023 to take advantage of the new federal tax credit for electric vehicles made available through the Inflation Reduction Act.

However, Tesla is not upholding original customer contracts and is canceling orders where delivery is delayed too long. The result is open factory build slots for some Model 3 and S variants.

Sources say that the sales push shouldn’t be taken as a sign that demand in the company is declining, pointing to the fact that Tesla stopped taking orders on more popular versions of its vehicles to prevent a significant backlog. It’s more likely that the EV automaker does not want too many cars in its inventory at the end of the quarter.

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