Former Tesla president reveals Tesla wasted 8,000 test drives before one simple hack immediately turned sales numbers around
Published on Dec 04, 2025 at 4:13 PM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Dec 04, 2025 at 4:13 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
The former president of Tesla has revealed that wasted test drives massively hurt sales numbers, before a simple hack managed to turn things around for the EV manufacturer.
Jon McNeill is a former Tesla president and currently the CEO of DVx Ventures, and he was speaking three years ago on the Grit Podcast.
In the podcast, he revealed just how many test drives had taken place with the company’s EVs, and only a handful of them had been called back afterwards.
So the president worked out a simple but effective hack that was able to turn the company’s fortunes around.
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How many test drives did Tesla conduct?
McNeill spoke of how ‘close rates’ for potential customers who did test drives with an EV were super low in 2015.
He conducted some research by going for test drives at Tesla dealerships himself.
Having done nearly 10 of these, not a single dealership called him back afterwards to try and close a deal.
McNeill then spoke to the head of sales ops at the time.
He wanted him to create a report on test drives and call backs in one month.
The data that came back revealed there had been 8,000 test drives, but only around 200 callbacks.
It transpired that people were motivated to do test drives, but not to convert them to sales numbers.
So to try and stop this, McNeill came up with a simple hack.
Test drive regulations changed for the company
They stated that you could not take another customer for a test drive until you’d closed the previous one.
That simple change reversed Tesla’s sales fortunes.
Sure enough, sales were closed rapidly, and they also increased massively compared to what they were before.
It was a massive boost for Tesla, which had been puzzled as to why sales were so slow.
McNeill actually spoke to Elon Musk about it soon after, and Musk praised McNeill for his simple change.
Now, dealerships were far more likely to close out a test drive with a deal than they had been before.
Given how big a name Tesla has become since then, it’s clear that this tactic has paid off handsomely!
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Henry is a content writer with nearly ten years experience, having written for various publications since 2017. Qualifying with a Sports Journalism degree from Staffordshire University, Henry loves all things automotive but has a particular soft spot for classic Japanese cars and anything Lancia. He also has a curious passion for steam locomotives.
