Case Study: Tesla and Unacast's Venue Data Package

Riding the EV Wave

2021 could be considered the year of the electric vehicle (EV). EV name-brand, Tesla, saw would-be competitor, Rivian, go public with a record-setting IPO. Meanwhile, legacy auto makers like Ford and General Motors announced plans to expand their reach into the EV market, and even Sony's launching its own play.

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Every auto brand expanding into the EV world has good reason to benchmark their performance against competitors and understand consumer behavior at their locations. Unacast's Venue Data Package opens a window into some key 2022 insights that will clarify the EV landscape and prove useful to automobile manufacturers.
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Which Tesla locations account for the highest traffic, where are these visitors coming from, and just how far will a visitor go to reach a Tesla location?
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Our interactive Tableau workbook can be accessed here.

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Map: Visitation and Visitor Origin

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In our workbook, you can hover over the Tesla locations marked in red to view the farthest distance customers traveled to reach that location. Clicking on a location will display the origin county for visitors during the timeframe. The counties are the black-outlined boundaries shown on the map.

The workbook also has a slide to set the kilometers traveled per location. Locations shown on the map experienced visitation from greater than or equal to the kilometer distance set. Hovering over a county shows all Tesla locations visited within the county origin boundary and the person count of visitors originating from that county.

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Where are visitors traveling the farthest?

Mississippi and Tennessee show two locations where visitors traveled over 225 km to reach their destination. In digging deeper, we determined both of these locations are much-needed service stations serving Tesla owners from across the southern United States.

Those in need of repair came from as far as New Mexico, South Carolina, and southern Florida for a service appointment. This data provides insight into how Tesla can position future service stations based on where Tesla owners are concentrated and the distance traveled in order to seek specialized repair.

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Zooming out to over 125 km traveled, a service center in Washington state drew visitors from as far as Utah and Colorado. The winner for the farthest distance traveled to a Tesla showroom is a location in Chicago, which saw visitors all the way from North Carolina in the third quarter 2021.
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Generally, our exploration of East and West Coast Tesla locations shows strong local traffic, suggesting these locations are well-positioned to draw interest from nearby census block regions. Tesla may want to re-examine where they can optimally place service locations for owners, especially for the middle portion of the U.S.

Our data also indicates Tesla interest in South Dakota and Wyoming that isn't served well by showrooms or service stations in the immediate area. Unacast data can provide key metrics for Tesla to evaluate where to expand and the kind of traffic to expect.

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Who are Tesla's top market competitors?

Unacast offers cross-visitation data for major U.S. brands, including Tesla. We examined which vehicle manufacturers had the highest cross-visitation rank for visitors who also went to a Tesla location during third quarter 2021.
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Land Rover took the top spot with just over 89,000 cross-visits. On offer at Land Rover is their all-electric SUV, the P400e. Are Tesla visitors comparing Tesla's own Model X SUV to the Land Rover brand?

In second place, Mazda has over 72,000 cross-visits in the third quarter: just in time for visitors to scope Mazda's new electric MX-30, which had a limited release in early 2021. Brands Lexus and Lincoln are both premiering their first electric vehicles during 2022. These two brands capture less than half of the cross-visits seen for Land Rover and Mazda, but the data suggests interest in electric vehicles and brand committment to entering the EV market may be a factor in driving traffic to these manufacturers.

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Interestingly, all of the brands on our cross-visitation list are putting out SUV vehicles.

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What auto acccessories brands draw cross-visits from Tesla?

Understanding which auto accessories brands Tesla visitors include in their shopping rotations offers important clues to consumer needs and interests, and it can assist Tesla in identifying useful brand partnerships and service offerings. The chart below shows brands and their locations that drew the highest level of cross-visits from Tesla locations in the third quarter 2021.

The Quick Lane in Riverside County saw the greatest number of cross-visits from Tesla's Perez Road location, which according to Google Maps is 12.7 miles away. In second place, O'Reilly Auto Parts saw 23,558 cross-visits from Tesla's Rocklin location, 16.9 miles distant.

The Ford-owned Quick Lane may eventually focus its brand offerings around Ford's run at the EV market. Will this offer a competitive disadvantage to Tesla?

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We examined the positioning of Tesla, Quick Lane, and O'Reilly Auto Parts locations within our Venue Data Package. In the bottom left image, you can see a distinct tri-state corridor containing Tesla locations but no O'Reilly Auto Parts locations. On the top left image, you can see Quick Lane services this area relatively well.

Be sure to check out the full interactive capacity of our Tesla workbook. We'd love to talk to you at your convenience about how our many products can help you expand and optimize your business. Sign up for a preliminary meeting here!