Halifax, Nova Scotia — CSN Chapman West Bedford, a well-oiled collision repair centre, received their Tesla certification last week—becoming the first shop in all of Nova Scotia and second in Atlantic Canada to do so.
“Our shop sought out Tesla certification because of the grown demand of more fuel-efficient vehicles, I thought that it would be an obvious choice to seek out their certification as the brand gets more and more popular,” explained Kelvin Campbell, owner of CSN Chapman West Bedford.
And since CSN Chapman is already Porsche and BMW certified, the basic infrastructure was already in place, Tesla certification just made sense, he continued. When the shop got its BMW certification, it was the first and only collision repair centre in Atlantic Canada to be authorized to perform aluminum structural repairs on the automakers’ vehicles.
As far as an investment standpoint, said Campbell, the cost was minimal and the initial investment into doing aluminum and so forth was there from the BMW certification and so the whole process was made fairly easy—with the exception of all the tedious online training that was required.
For future operations, Campbell believes that since many CSN Chapman West Bedford customers are dealing with mostly European and high-end side of the industry, a Tesla is now a possible option for them because there is now a local source to get their cars repaired. It has allowed Campbell to retain the customers he has, and hopefully gain more.
“Most of our BMW clients or Porsche clients are the type of people who can afford the tesla, and the Chapman brand has been around for the last 30 years, focused on the high-end side for the last 20, and so it just makes the choices easier,” said Campbell. “Rather than having the Tesla shipped to Newfoundland to CSN Collision Clinic, or someplace in Quebec.”
Campbell’s facility is the first in Nova Scotia to become Tesla certified, though it is the second facility in Atlantic Canada to earn the seal, behind CSN Collision Clinic in Newfoundland, he said.
“Even though I was disappointed to not be the first, I was happy to be second behind a CSN partner,” said Campbell. “But being the first in Nova Scotia is pretty cool and I just want to show our insurance partners that we are in it for the long hall. The investment into my business proves that we’re going to be around for a while. We are really trying to strengthen our relationship with our insurance partners.”
