Tesla Factory Tour + Sponsorship?

[ksafin]

Hi all,

This year Team 3992 reached out to Tesla Motors and we're getting sponsored by them! (kinda).

Tesla is providing us with a few things.. one, an exclusive tour of the Tesla factory for 25 (they don't do tours, only for execs and VIP's, this is a first-time thing for them), a "take a tesla home for a day" and a series of "swag bags" with tesla stuff in them.

We're in a little bit of a financial coop so we're going to be doing something with these things to raise money for our team - we're thinking along the lines of auctioning them off, or raffling them.

I was wondering how many teams or people on ChiefDelphi would be interested in this sort of stuff - we were ecstatic about the tesla factory thing, but being a Florida team it's a bit impractical so we wanted to offer it to teams or peoples in the west coast area..

Anyways, the end question is - would you be interested in the above stuff? Tesla swag bags, tesla factory tour, take a tesla home for a day?

We'll likely be doing either a raffle for the factory and tesla (something like enter your team for $50 or $100 for a chance to win) or auction the whole thing off for a certain amount of money. Same with swag bags.

After all, this is going to be a fundraiser for our team for the FRC season as we're low on funds - we're interested In hearing if you'd be interested as well as any ideas you may have as to how we should go about utilizing these great gifts from Tesla.

Disclaimer: Tesla Motors isn't actually ready to sponsor teams - they're a new company and getting started - they specifically told us they can't "sponsor" us but can offer these neat gifts - they ask that they're not approached with sponsorship requests from hundreds of teams so please do not contact them lest they get overwhelmed

EDIT: This isn't tesla offering us stuff for us and us wanting to be greedy and auction it off - they offered us these gifts as tools of sponsorship - there was no expectation of our team using them - we can but we're financially strapped and opted for this as well - they understand this.

[Cory]

I would be careful about what you want to do. Tesla was probably expecting to show off their product to a bunch of teenagers that are excited about technology, not enable you to auction off their gift for a profit.

[ksafin]

Actually the exact opposite, they were offering the gifts as a means for us to fundraise, and said that if we'd like we can use them as well - the main purpose is sponsorship, it's just that they can't write a blank check - they instead offered us things that don't cost them anything but that could be auctioned or raffled.

[philso]

Whoever gets to take the car home is one lucky guy/gal! It's a really nice car to drive. Brace yourself before you floor it.

Tesla may be able to put your team in touch with some of their suppliers who are more established and more able to offer financial sponsorship to your team. I was able to get some electrical parts as donations in-kind for a team that way before.

Something else that Tesla may be able to contribute would be some top notch mentors. Their car is very well designed and very well thought out. They didn't do that with mediocre engineers on staff.

[seg9585]

I would personally be interested in driving a Tesla around for a day, assuming the price is fair. They keep claiming you can drive LA to Vegas with a quick supercharge in Barstow. I would accept the challenge.

[Ankit S.]

Being from the same city as the Tesla Factory (Fremont, CA FTW!), we contacted them last year to see if they would be willing to sponsor us and got a similar response.

While they were unable to offer us a monetary sponsorship, they did donate ~40 really cool Tesla water bottles. If OP's team is really auctioning/raffling them off, I would recommend them to pretty much anyone (unless you already have a surplus of reusable metal water bottles).

Good luck with the auction/raffle!

EDIT:Obligatory 200th post edit. Only 54 more till a major milestone!

[philso]

Originally Posted by seg9585

I would personally be interested in driving a Tesla around for a day, assuming the price is fair. They keep claiming you can drive LA to Vegas with a quick supercharge in Barstow. I would accept the challenge.

Go to the Tesla website and sign up for a test drive. It was a really fun car to drive.

Here in Texas, they are not allowed to sell cars in their stores. Consequently, the Telsa reps (they are not salesmen in the normal sense) never pressure you to buy. They don't even give you prices. They refer you to the website. My impression is that Tesla is in an "evangelical mode" and are not too worried about selling to every person who goes for a test drive.

My boss went on a test drive after I told him about it. Afterward, as he and his wife were walking to the parking lot, she said "let do this." Last Monday, he drove his wife's brand new Tesla to work. He told me he didn't know whether he should be happy with me or mad at me. She told him not to worry about the cost of the car because she spent his retirement money on it. I am not sure if I will be getting a raise this next April

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by philso

My impression is that Tesla is in an "evangelical mode" and are not too worried about selling to every person who goes for a test drive.

Correct - they are production-constrained and are selling every car they can make, with thousands of orders backlogged worldwide. A good problem to have, but ramping up production to the scale required is not an easy task.

Driving a Model S will put a grin on your face like nothing else. The 60 is so ridiculously fast already I can't imagine what the P85+ feels like.

OP, would definitely be interested in bidding on/buying some TSLA swag from you guys, keep us updated.