The electric car manufacturer Tesla is entering the Israeli market, but there are no signs that it’s planning to open a classic dealership. An official map of service locations encompasses charging stations around the country and a sales center in the Ramat Aviv mall in Tel Aviv, but even the main sales center in Petah Tikvah doesn’t appear to include a showroom or any space for test drives.
Tesla isn’t letting a lack of traditional showrooms slow its Israel rollout down; the company is already accepting pre-orders through its IL website.
This makes for a compelling real-time experiment in the digitization of the car buyers’ journey. Tech car sales platforms are eager to jostle real-life car salesmen out of the picture, but physical dealerships aren’t planning to step aside quietly. There’s so much buzz now around the debate of clicks versus bricks, whether the future is to be found in ecommerce or physical retail, but when it comes to the automotive sector