The state I live in has 1 (one) Tesla shop. For the whole state. Do you think the other car makers would be able to work with one showroom per state?
Also, not all Tesla sales happened after consumers visited their showrooms. Tesla itself planned to close most of their showrooms at some point [0], only to reverse it later. I’m sure they were confident their sales wouldn’t tank when making such decision. One dealer per state may be too few for Ford, how about five? or ten? Do you think Ford can’t afford five or ten showrooms?
[0] - https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/28/18245296/tesla-stores-clo...
> Tesla itself planned to close (all) their showrooms at some point,
Maybe for Tesla it could work. For Toyota - they'd be insane to do something like that.
> Do you think Ford can’t afford five or ten showrooms?
They could afford, but that would cost them. And it probably won't be very efficient. For Tesla, whose buyers have little concern for price, and whose meme value is obvious, it may work. For Ford, which very much competes on price and utility with about a dozen other makers, I don't think such a move would be survivable. They could sell one special model this way, maybe, but making whole business - I'll believe it when I see it, done not for a niche rich people's car but by some mass-market vendor.
Tesla mostly does test drives out of showrooms, but there is this:
> Tesla occasionally hosts test drive events for those who don’t live near a showroom. You can check out our events page to find regional test drive tours near you.
A lack of dealerships does not mean that there are no showrooms or test drives. There's nothing stopping Ford, BMW, Mercedes or whoever from putting in a showroom next to a Tesla showroom. In actuality it makes it easier since a showroom doesn't have to have inventory; you can put them in places where a normal car dealership couldn't exist (this is exactly what Tesla is doing). I saw a Genesis showroom in an airport once...