In 2020 Tesla introduced PPF wraps for their vehicles in China. Beyond simply announcing this, no additional information has ever really been released; or at least none has made it to the US. So we’ve been left to wonder, how did this program work out? In 2023 Tesla has again introduced the concept of wrapping vehicles, piloting it out of two locations in Southern California. Specifically, West Covina and Carlsbad. Is this a game changer, or is this a bad idea being tested out… again? For those in the know, this is a pretty bad idea, and may not work out in the long run. Let’s investigate why.

1. Tesla doesn’t have experience in PPF wrapping in volume

Many have speculated from the lack of any news or updates on the success or failure of the China factory tests that there was either no major adoption of the service, or they were never able to scale. In either case, one thing is for sure, and that is that Tesla does not have the experience of doing this at scale in the US. If they had reached scale we would have seen countless articles about Chinese wrapped Tesla cars and it would have been mentioned on one of the quarterly earnings calls. There are reasons why when you want your vehicle wrapped you go to a professional wrap shop, and that is because there are a lot of benefits that come with volume and Tesla does not have the volume or scale. Many of these benefits will be discussed in the following bullet points, but volume is the key to success in a good looking, high-quality PPF wrap.

2. They don’t have an ability to scale this product

Tesla’s expertise currently lies in manufacturing, amazing electric vehicles. They do it better than anyone else, including even traditional automotive companies. However, wrapping a vehicle is something that is a lot harder to scale than something like painting a body in white of a car. Because of all the angles and curves on the car panels stretching the PPF film over a vehicle means that you can’t simply have a robot do it if you want it to be precise. And developing a robot for this purpose doesn’t make sense from an economic standpoint. Typically, only about 1-2% of cars get wrapped. The cost of such a robot would be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars and for such a low adoption rate it would never pay off. Therefore, no one wants to spend their time and capital on developing such a robot because there wouldn’t be enough customers. Ultimately, this means that Tesla is going to be wrapping the cars by hand and can never really reach the scalability and margins that Tesla usually aims for.

3. A high quality wrap requires years of experience

There’s a reason that when you want your Ferrari, Lamborghini, or other expensive sports car wrapped, you take it to a shop that specializes in high-end vehicles. This is because it takes years of experience in wrapping cars to have the muscle memory,steady hands, and the know-how to effectively wrap a car without it lifting or having visible seams. Most people who are getting into wrapping vehicles do so on the side, or work for small or low-end wrap shops. Only after sticking with it for a few years can they hope to get a job wrapping expensive vehicles. Unfortunately for Tesla, their technicians typically only stay on the job six months to a year before leaving the company. In that time if they dedicated their full-time duties wrapping they would only become moderately good at it before leaving. That means that unless Tesla hires someone who has been doing this for years, it’s unlikely that they will have in-house employees that will ever be skillful enough to do this for a premium vehicle like Teslas. This also leads to additional issues that we cover in later points.

4. Higher cost

At the time of this writing Tesla is offering their color change PPF wraps for $7500-$8000 depending on the color. By searching around online in your local area it’s quite possible that you could find something at that price or lower at a place that does wraps full-time. This also means that you’d be able to get better quality and more color options at a lower price point. Also factor in that Tesla’s wrap likely won’t last as long as the wrap shop’s installation. So the $7500-$8000 Tesla is quoting is probably only good for a year or two, and then you’ll have to pay that price again to fix it.

5. Will take longer than a dedicated wrapping company

When you schedule your wrap appointment with Tesla, it’s going to be done at the service center. This means they’re gonna have to take space away from the rest of their service appointments in order to do the wrap. Because wraps probably take longer to install than their other service offerings, it’s likely that this will be a lower priority for their scheduling team. Additionally because the vehicle has to sit there for several hours or overnight to cure it means they’re losing a lot of usage of their space that could be used for other service appointments. This means that the color change wraps in the PPF wraps are probably going to be lower priority for the service center. It’s very conceivable that Tesla will deprioritize days in order to get as many of the other service appointments completed as possible. In the end, that means receiving your new color changed car is going to take a lot longer than if you had just taken delivery from Tesla and then gotten the wrap at a dedicated shop. The worst case scenario is that they do the installation or let it cure outside to save on service center space and you risk getting dirt, leaves, bird poop, or bugs in the wrap. That will stay on the paint until you have the film removed. Hopefully this doesn’t happen.

6. It will be harder to check for panel gap/alignment issues when picking up the vehicle

This isn’t not be true for all color changes, however, for certain colors panel gaps will be harder to see. That means when you take delivery of your vehicle, you’ll drive it around for a while, and then days, weeks, or months later you’ll notice that there’s misalignment on your car’s panels. At that point is it convenient to drive back to the delivery center to have them fix it, or do you decide to just live with the gaps? Quality control has improved with Tessa over the years, but there are many people who still have issues with panel gaps. It’s easiest to get this resolved when you take delivery of the vehicle, or rather refusing to take delivery until they’re resolved. So if you’re getting your car wrapped by Tesla before seeing the car you could have issues that are harder to resolve. On the other hand, when you make an appointment with a dedicated wrap shop you will have already taken delivery of the vehicle and gone through the checklist to ensure the vehicle is in top condition. This way you know that there are no issues that crop up later.

7. Resolving issues with the PPF installation will be more difficult and time consuming

Similar to the issue above, if there is an issue with your PPF installation, it will be more difficult to get it resolved with Tesla than a dedicated wrap shop. The most common issue for clear PPF installation is lifting of the edges. This is pretty normal, and if you had your insulation done at a professional shop, you can just drive your car in and they can fix it on the spot immediately. There’s no hassle, no wait, and it’s typically free covered under the warranty, if you went to a high quality shop. However, with Tesla, when the PPF film lifts, you’re going to have to schedule a service appointment in the app, and then hopefully they’ll be able to get to it in a few days. During this time as you’re driving the vehicle, there’s going to be more dirt, dust, bugs, and rocks getting into that lifted area. That means that when they finally resolve it, the film may need to be trimmed or that entire section may need to come off. Because we don’t know much about the Tesla warranty on the installation of this product, It could be that there’s a charge associated with this fix. And even if it’s free, it’s possible that it will take a lot longer than just driving into a professional place and being done. So if you’re determined to have Tesla install your PPF wrap you might want to double check on the warranty and find some experiences online from other who have needed to get problems resolved.

8. Completing follow-up meetings for Color Change PPF Wraps will be harder

This may be redundant to the two points above, but Color Change PPF wraps on your Tesla will be even worse than the clear installations. This is because with the wrap shops, wraps are all they do, and they typically will schedule follow-up appointments for full body wraps, or for color change wraps. It’s normal for the PPF film to set after a few days, and this can lead to some shifting. When a color change wrap shifts you can see the original paint and it stands out like a sore thumb. So while it may look good when you drive it away from the Tesla Service center that may not be the case a few days later. At that point, you’ll have to try and schedule an appointment through the app. Getting a convenient Service Center appointment scheduled is going to be difficult, but then you also have to try to get the issue resolved by a less-experienced technician. Finally, you’ll have to come back several days later. So working through any issues with Tesla will be a frustrating process. However, dedicated wrap shops have this built into their delivery with the follow up appointment, so if you have any issues it’s already on the books. Also, because they probably don’t have dedicated wrap staff when there is an issue it’s hard to know when the technician will be available to fix it. If you don’t have any issues, you can just cancel the follow-up appointment with no issues and save time and hassle.

9. Tesla’s color change PPF wraps are  only available on select models for the newest cars

Tesla’s trial for installing wraps is limited to only two places in Southern California (West Covina and Carlsbad California) as of now. However, the eligible owners for a Tesla direct wrap is further limited. Specifically, only the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are able to have the wraps installed. This means that S and X vehicle owners are out of luck. They’ve also limited the pool of eligible vehicles even further. Only 2023 and newer model years are eligible for Tesla installation. So for the vast majority of Tesla owners who don’t live in the area and don’t own the specific mode and year, you will not be able to even think about getting your vehicle wrapped by Tesla. This is probably 99% of Tesla owners who are excluded from this even being an option.

10. Limited color options

Tesla initially is only wrapping in seven different colors. That means if you don’t like those specific colors you’re out of luck. In this case you’ll have to go to a professional PPF installer. Luckily most PPF installers have over 50 color options, and some have over 100 or more color choices. If you want vinyl and then a clear wrap on top of that your color options are almost limitless. Prior to 2019 the free Tesla paint color was black. Then it changed to white in 2019. The free color has now changed to “Midnight Silver”. During each of these periods the free color of Tesla would take over the superchargers and it would become quite bland. In the coming years there will be a major takeover of silver Teslas at superchargers. That’s why going to a dedicated wrap shop is still ideal if you want to stand out. Arguably the new free silver color is also better for getting a color change because if there is a slight misalignment of the film then you won’t see a bright white spot hiding underneath.

11. Lower warranty, if any

It’s currently unclear what kind of warranty Tesla will offer on their PPF wraps. However, given many of the reasons above, it’s unlikely they will want to warrant it for more than a year or so. That means by the time you have issues with the PPF wrap you won’t be able to have it covered under warranty That means there will be no options to you other than to either take it back to Tesla, and have them do it again, or take it to specialized wrap shop and have them do it, this time with a warranty. Both of these options will have a cost associated with them. By doing just a few minutes of searching online in your local area it’s likely that you can find a wrap shop that has a 5, 10, or even a lifetime warranty. This also comes with all of the benefits listed above.

Conclusion

It should be clear by now that getting a Tesla direct installed wrap won’t be available to most people due to the limitations on where you can get it done and which vehicles are eligible. It’s unlikely that Tesla will be able to scale in order to allow more customers the ability to install them in the long term. It’s also highly speculated that The quality, warranty, delays, price, and resolutions for issues will all be inferior to those of a local PPF wrap shop. For these reasons we don’t believe that getting your car wrapped by Tesla will be a good idea. If you’re an educated buyer then it’s a good idea to wait until many reviews come in from other customers who didn’t do their due diligence and jumped on having Tesla installing their wrap for them.