Unity and Bensonwood: Model 3 and Model S?

“What’s the difference between Unity and Bensonwood?”

This is a question that both Unity and Bensonwood field fairly often, and one that we have been discussing internally ever since Unity was founded as an offshoot of Bensonwood in 2012.

There are several ways to answer this question, and it might take more than one blog post to do the comparison justice. Sometimes comparisons of Unity and Bensonwood invoke other companies with a similar relationship. Toyota (Unity) and Lexus (Bensonwood) come to mind. More recently we’ve been hearing comparisons to two of Tesla’s electric vehicles, the Model 3 (Unity) and the Model S (Bensonwood). At the risk of inviting cheap shots for comparing our high performance homes to these high performance cars, let’s run with the comparison, based on information from Tesla’s website.

The comparison is not perfect, but it’s informative.

Tesla opted not to change its own powerful brand for its entry into the mass-market: the Model 3 and the Model S are both Teslas. Bensonwood followed the example of other auto makers when it spun off Unity as a separate company with its own brand. This has given Unity the best of both worlds—a connection with and support from the parent company, as well as autonomy to develop in its own direction.

We would be curious to hear your thoughts about the differences you perceive between Unity and Bensonwood. Please drop us a line at “[email protected].”