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Tesla Model 3 Teardown Reveals a 'Symphony of Engineering,' 30 Percent Profit Margin (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Munro & Associates, a small Detroit-area firm that disassembles new cars and analyzes them down to the nuts and bolts, came out in April with damning findings that the Model 3 was poorly built and -- even worse for Tesla's long-term outlook -- costly to build. On that second point, at least, founder Sandy Munro has reversed course. Upon further analysis, his firm has found that the sedan can be profitable. It may even have the potential to make a 30 percent margin, which would be unmatched by any other other battery-powered vehicle. Munro said the systems that impressed him most were the tight integration of circuit board components, which he calls "a symphony of engineering," and the efficiency of the battery developed by Tesla and Panasonic Corp. Munro also pointed to a comprehensive side-by-side comparison of the parts and materials used by the Model 3, General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Bolt, and BMW AG's i3, in which the Model 3 comes out favorably. The report echoes a teardown published in June by German magazine WirtschaftsWoche, which found that the Model 3 costs about $28,000 to build -- $18,000 for materials and $10,000 for production.
That's not what he said at all.
My favourite part (although other teardowns had already discovered this) was the battery pack. The more capable you want to make your BMS, the more individual cell connections and wires you need, the more the per-cell circuitry, etc. Every connection, every wire, every circuit, etc adds expense, so there's a strong incentive to have as few connections as possible. Tesla gets around this by having the battery pack be basically two gigantic, two meter long PCBs. The cells are like capacitors on a huge motherboard. They can route power wherever they want, whenever they want, and do whatever they want to it. Cell balancing is essentially always perfect, to within the degree of measurement error.
Summing up all of his videos: Munro had some issues with the build quality of the first car he tore down (one of the first off the line), and tore into Tesla over that (making him popular among shorts... making his statement now about eating crow all the more amusing). He tore down more Model 3s later, and noted that the build quality improved over time. Even early on, though, even before he started getting into the electronics, he said the performance and handling was incredible. He stated in particular that whoever designed the suspension could be a Formula 1 prince.
The big brain am winning again! I am the greetist! Now I am leaving for no particular raisin!
The Big 3 have spent $billions and hundreds of thousands if not millions of man-hours over the past century refining their processes to maximize efficiency and quality. It's ludicrous to suggest that somehow they missed the virtues of erecting an open tent and near-sweatshop working conditions for their assembly lines.
If he acknowledges that the build quality has improved between first and current models, I wouldn't call that "eating crow". Except perhaps if you mean on Tesla's part.
Tesla were designed and built more like a software development project, then a traditional automobile project, initially, later on they started to bring in _some_ of the traditional methods.
Tesla's first project was its original roadster, which was basically a repowered Lotus. You don't get more traditional than that in the EV space. The Model S and X were built fairly traditionally. Only with the Model 3 did Tesla try to use non-traditional methods, i.e. robots for everything. Then they went back to traditional methods of production (more humans on the line) when that failed. So you have that completely backwards.
However being that we have an All Electric Car being built using a different project method, scares the Traditional Automotive industry and their biases would probably have them hunting down problems in the design vs good points.
If only you had ever heard of the BMW i3 you would know that the traditional automotive industry is capable of the same kind of feat. Look into how the i3 is made, it makes the production process for a Tesla look positively ho-hum.
Tesla is currently making all electric cars that people actually wan't vs. the Tiny road legal golf carts like the Leaf that people would only want it because it is electric and affordable. The Chevy Bolt is a good contender too. But it still lacks some coolness.
Ford (which is struggling for stock price) and FCA (which is circling the bowl for a broad variety of reasons) the entrenched auto industry can afford to take the wait-and-see position while Tesla figures out what customers want. If they ever actually got desperate, they could use Tesla's patents, and license particular pieces of tech from Tesla.
There are two particularly likely outcomes for Tesla. One, they continue to succeed as an automaker, and make a small percentage of the vehicles on the road. By the time their numbers get at all big, mobility/sharing services will have decimated personal vehicle ownership. Or two, they simply become a tier 1 supplier, providing primarily batteries, electronics, and electric motors. Automakers are already getting into more powerplant sharing because customers of low-end vehicles don't care. Sooner or later, nobody will.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
[1] The diver died before the caves were pumped out.
[2] The obvious reference to "no gear" is "how the boys got in": with no gear. Again: the caves were pumped out. Water only remained in small places.
[3] If you want to (rightfully) demand that Musk provide evidence to the pedo claim (beyond the profile of "63 year old white western male moved to Thailand"), if someone wants to go on TV and tell Musk to shove his submarine up his arse because it's not workable, then he too should be able to provide at least some evidence of some kind for his claims.
[4] The same people were not setting up and operating the pumps as were diving.
Musk was asked to make the submarine by one of the dive co-leads, Rick Stanton. He made it to Stanton's specs, in consultation with other cave divers. And then disavowed credit when people were thanking him, saying "we haven't done anything useful yet". He had every reason in the world to be mad at all of the hate he was getting for donating his time and money, on request, to try to help save trapped children, on request from rescuers. Does that excuse name calling? No. Even though the other person started it? No. But trying to erase the context here is just ridiculous.
The big brain am winning again! I am the greetist! Now I am leaving for no particular raisin!
I can't tell if you're trolling or not. A friend had his Model 3 delivered a month ago and its fit and finish is worse than any car I've seen from a major manufacturer since the early 1980's..
You obviously have never been near a Leaf. They aren't tiny, they are actually quite large. Same cargo space as a model 3, bigger than a typical crossover.
They are solid cars, decent performance compared to similar sized fossil cars.
Tesla have been met in the middle here. We have cars like the Kona, Niro and soon to be released Leaf 60 in the same price bracket as the M3 SR with similar features (100kW charging, auto steering, 150kW+ motor, 250+ mile range). You could argue that it might not have happened without Tesla, but equally Nissan build a good affordable car and charging network and LG got the battery pack cost down too.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If you drill through to the breakdown video, he shows the PCB called a "symphony of engineering"
It's a very ordinary design and would have been considered dense 25 years ago. Today, those components are medium-sized or even large. The PCB layout is designed to basic industry standards and no more. However, needlessly-small components reduce manufacturing yield and reliability. Unusual PCB designs increase costs and shrink your supplier base.
The design is simply competent so I can't imagine what he's used to seeing that makes this one worth gushing over.
You jest but that's what a lot of people did with the Model X. Demanded a buy-back on the early one, and bought another.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC