Tesla Needs to Crack Europe’s $360 Billion Corporate Car Market

Car buyers are showing increasing interest in Tesla Inc. models, and the employees at German software maker SAP SE are no exception. Europe’s largest tech company, like major corporations across the Continent, provides cars for company and personal use as an employee perk. And SAP lately has been getting dozens of requests for Teslas from its workers each month. But the company won’t buy them, saying Tesla’s lack of servicing centers near its Walldorf headquarters and other SAP facilities has fueled concerns that employees would take time off to deal with repairs if they were given the coveted electric vehicle. BMW AG and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz—longtime fixtures on the company’s approved list—offer same-day fixes nearby, making their hybrid models the most popular plug-ins SAP provides.

Servicing teams “need to be there at short notice, and Tesla still has some work to do,” says Steffen Krautwasser, who manages SAP’s 17,000 cars in Germany. “The interest in Teslas is extremely high, but we simply can’t offer them at this point.”