Tesla Ireland’s chief on selling more cars, self-driving taxis and robots in our homes

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Standing in a vacant warehouse near the M50 Finglas exit on a rain-sodden February evening, it’s hard to conjure up grand visions of a Jetsons-style era of robots and driverless cars.

In the centre of its empty concrete floor is Kieran Campbell, Tesla’s enthusiastic new market lead for Ireland. The 44-year-old gestures around what will soon house eight service bays and a handover area for new customers.

Estimates from within the industry put a price tag on the new north Dublin facility at close to €5 million. The firm is also upgrading its current handover facility in Baldonnell to Tesla West Dublin.

These will join sales and service operations at the brand’s home base in Sandyford, a facility in Cork, a handful of semi-permanent sales pop-ups, and a team of mobile technicians, known as rangers, who carry out servicing and repairs that don’t require workshop equipment. Alongside this investment is the ongoing expansion of its Supercharger network.

And with Campbell estimating a total fleet size of 15,000 Teslas on Irish roads by the end of this year, he is also open to expanding its sales and service outlets in other parts of the island.

“We’ve done phenomenally well in Sandyford, but it’s just super-tight at present. So, in the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll be at the next stage of growing our retail footprint in Ireland.

“It’s a big investment to set us up for the next phase of growth in Ireland.”

The question is whether that growth will come from car sales or other ventures.

Campbell is adamant “we’ll always be selling cars”. Yet last month, Tesla announced plans to shift capital investment away from automotive to business lines such as humanoid robots.

Chief executive Elon Musk said the car firm would end production of its Model X SUV and Model S saloon and use the space in its California factory to make its Optimus robots.

[ Tesla to sell Optimus robots to public next year, Elon Musk saysOpens in new window ]

The move will have no real impact on Irish operations. The car maker cut Model S and Model X vehicles from its right-hand-drive markets three years ago.

Yet it underlines how limited the Tesla model range is, with just two models on offer here and no plans to add the likes of Tesla’s controversial Cybertruck to the Irish line-up, despite the vehicle featuring on the local website. “Our current line-up is our Model 3 and Model Y – we have no plans to introduce Cybertruck because of European homologation issues,” says Campbell.

Instead, Campbell optimistically awaits the arrival of the Cybercab, the self-driving two-seater taxi which he expects to be on Irish roads within the next few years. “When it is fully allowed in Ireland, it will a big, big moment.”

The Cybercab has no steering wheel and no pedals. There’ll also be no banter with the driver, but for Tesla there is going to be plenty of talks with the taxi regulator. “There should be some interesting conversations to come,” says Campbell.

Given that the State has struggled to regulate e‑scooters, a fleet of driverless taxis may require a little more than interesting conversations. It’s an optimistic reading of what lies ahead, given its dependence on major legislative shifts, overcoming the inevitable industry kickback and, finally, societal acceptance.

Yet Campbell reckons autonomous – self-driving – cars will deliver massive improvements in road safety. Human error is the weak link on our roads, and removing our control will save lives, he says.

He knows first-hand the current risks on our roads. In September 2023, his wife Mimi was driving to work on to the M50. “She was stopped at the off-ramp going northbound at Ballymount. The next thing she remembers was waking up, the car full of smoke from the airbags.”

A 20-foot curtain-sided truck hit her from behind at 80km/h and launched her fully across the M50.

“What drives me absolutely mad is that the guy who hit her – and admitted full guilt – had one phone on him and three phones working in the cab at the time.”

Campbell says witnesses told the court the truck never braked before the collision.

“The amount of drivers I see every day who are on their phone in the car. Just put the phone away.”

Aside from Cybercab, another priority for Tesla’s 2030 ambition is in energy. Not only does it involve far more Superchargers for its cars and Powerwalls for storing energy in homes, but also the firm’s Mega Packs for storing large amounts of renewable energy.

“We don’t have any live projects for Mega Packs as yet, but Ireland will be coming, particularly with the constraints that the grid has.”

The final piece of Tesla’s 2030 jigsaw is the Optimus robot.

Elon Musk has described it as more significant than Tesla’s vehicle business over time. He claimed the faceless robot helper will walk dogs, cut grass, get groceries, be your friend and ultimately cost less than a car. He even suggested it “will actually eliminate poverty”.

Yet Tesla is not alone in the robotic race. China’s humanoid robotics industry is booming. Reports in The Economist recently claimed 14,500 automotons were delivered last year globally, with nearly all coming from China. Its two leading suppliers accounted for three-quarters of that total: Tesla shipped just 150 Optimus bots, the article stated.

So, with much less hyperbole, Campbell says Tesla already has Optimus robots working in its factories and that he can envisage them becoming part of the average Irish household. “We have automatic vacuum cleaners going around the house now, maybe Optimus can do that as well and just do a few more jobs at the same time.”

He foresees a customer in 2030 arriving in a Cybercab, buying a Model Y, an Optimus, and a Powerwall and solar panel package for their home to keep everything charged.

It’s all very Jetsons, as Campbell freely admits.

His own motoring journey began on the family farm in Swinford, Co Mayo, when The Jetsons cartoon would have been running on RTÉ’s The Den. “My route to Tesla started with a set of keys when I was four and my cousin was five, and we ‘inadvertently’ took my uncle’s Peugeot 504 estate for a drive around the yard.”

A summer job before college at a Toyota dealer cemented his interest in the motor trade. After a degree in marketing, he worked at a vehicle auction firm and then a Dublin dealership before starting with Mazda Motor Ireland, ending up as an area sales manager.

“You learn an awful lot when you’re dealer-facing because you are the battering ram for everything from Dublin. They send us down to take the flak. But I think, if your career is going to be in automotive, the lessons you learn in that role are absolutely phenomenal.”

It was followed by a similar job at Volkswagen, albeit with much greater scale.

Then, in late 2021, Campbell saw an ad for Polestar, the new Swedish electric car brand that had yet to launch in Ireland. “I sent a CV off, got a phone call, had another phone call, and got the job.

“In January 2022, my then-boss basically said: ‘Mr Campbell, here are the keys: make it work’. It’s not very often you get the chance to genuinely set up a car brand [in Ireland] from scratch, working on your own at home, in the home office with just the phone and the laptop.

“And it was a case of, ‘right, how do I do this?’ Again, the experience was very eye-opening, because you’re trying to launch something literally from zero.”

Initially working out of a converted shipping container on a corner site of OHM Group’s facilities in Sandyford Business Park, Polestar recently moved into a sizeable new showroom on the same site.

[ Polestar opens a proper Irish dealership – is this the end of the agency model?Opens in new window ]

By the time that opened, Campbell had parted company with Polestar, but the experience helped secure his new role at Tesla.

Like Tesla, Polestar is a direct-to-consumer sales model, though it’s underpinned by the support of Volvo Cars’ dealer network.

“The Polestar experience was what got me this job. But the scale of this is just so much different.”

Polestar’s sales performance has been rocky. Like Tesla, a limited model range hasn’t helped it expand. But Campbell defends the limited options from both brands, claiming it “just makes it so much easier” for customers.

An issue that has caused customer consternation is Tesla’s price cuts on its new fleet. It may win new buyers, but it has seriously annoyed early adopters whose resale values have been hit.

If new buyers get the trade-in bonus (€3,500 on top of what value you get for your car) and the various grants, an entry-level Model 3 starts from €32,984 or a Model Y from €39,332. When the Model Y first launched in Ireland in 2021, it started at €69,800 for the long-range AWD version. Today, that same model can be bought for €50,972 after the incentives and trade-in bonus.

In 2021, the Model 3 started at €49,990 and hit a heady €77,327 for the Performance version.

“Those most affected are people who bought the early Performance versions because they were expensive, and they’ve now come down accordingly,” says Campbell. “But look, we try to deal with everybody as best we can. We can’t retain everybody, and that’s why we don’t have 100 per cent retention targets.”

With European car makers – from Renault to Mercedes-Benz – freely admitting their bottom lines are being battered by new Chinese rivals eating into their markets, Campbell remains stoic about the increased competition. He says Tesla upended the car market when it arrived, and it’s only natural that other waves of competition arrive. Besides, he says, the mission is not to sell the most EVs. It’s to transition to sustainable energy.

[ Tesla loses crown as world’s biggest maker of EVs to China’s BYDOpens in new window ]

“My main focus at Tesla right now is just automotive. But, as we were talking about, in 2030, it’s power, its automotive, its other elements. And software is the wrap for all of that.”

It’s a grand vision of a sustainable Tesla ecosystem, but one that analysts regularly suggest is led by a grand visionary with a tendency to distraction.

Tesla’s global brand has in recent years become increasingly entwined with the outspoken politics of its chief executive. While protests and vandalism have hit showrooms in parts of the US and Europe, the Irish response has been comparatively muted.

Tesla sales were down 5.4 per cent last year, after falling 13.2 per cent the year before.

Yet Campbell says the dip is more closely aligned to financing changes than reputational backlash. “The sales programme we had at the start of the year was wrong. We were selling well on low-rate finance, but when rates rose to 5.9 per cent, it slowed immediately.”

Irish buyers respond to finance. He insists the underlying demand remains strong.

Did Campbell’s friends or family react badly to him joining Tesla, given the commentary around Musk? “No,” he says.

Campbell has yet to have any direct contact with Musk, describing communication as flowing through European and US-based senior leadership. “He hasn’t rang me just yet.”

So if Musk were to depart Tesla and devote his time to his other interests, would that help or hamper sales? “You’re asking questions way beyond my pay grade.”

CV:

Name: Kieran Campbell

Age: 44

Job: Market Lead for Ireland at Tesla.

Family: Married to Mimi with two children – Pete (five) and Kate (eight).

Something you might expect: Like many in Mayo, Campbell is passionate about football and is involved in his local GAA club as a mentor for the 2020 nursery group. “We have at least 100 five-year-old kids every Saturday morning. It’s like chasing mosquitoes for an hour, but it’s amazing.”

Something that may surprise: He has run 10km on average daily for more than 1,200 consecutive days.