Tesla Will Be Making Some EV Repair House Calls in Trailer-Towing Diesel Vans

Sometimes, it seems, you just gotta have a V8.

Tesla gets highest marks for the oil-offsetting efficiencies of its electric roadster, and for the innovative "Tesla Rangers" mobile repair service it announced earlier this week - a way to serve the upkeep and repair needs of its (usually) wealthy clients who either live a long, long way from one of the handful of brick-and-mortar Tesla facilities or who simply don't want to have to be bothered taking their car to the dealer.

We had a vision of a smartly liveried "Ranger" zooming from customer to customer in a helicopter or small plane, or, for those who lived closer-in, arriving in a specially marked Tesla Roadster with a pile of parts strapped onto a special deck mounted luggage rack.

But reality intervenes. The parts, tools and test equipment take up way too much space.

For long distance work -a customer in Alaska being served from the Seattle Tesla store, for instance, the repair folks will fly commercial, hauling their equipment with them, and then rent a car upon arrival.

But for customers within 300 miles of a service facility the mobile repair people will be rolling up in full-size diesel vans towing hefty covered utility trailers filled with the necessary bits and pieces.

That's gonna put a hurt on the 'ol corporate carbon footprint data!

Spokeswoman Rachel Konrad did add this bit of tempering info: By the time Tesla starts building its anticipated and less pricey Model S electric sedan in 2012, the company hopes to have around 20 service centers up and running, cutting down on the amount of long-distance driving the Rangers will have to do.

John O'Dell, Senior Editor 

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John O'Dell October 6, 2009, 12:18 PM

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Tesla

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Tesla Mobile Repair, Tesla Motors. Tesla Rangers