The Model 3 Is Riddled With Design Errors That Cost Tesla Money
Telsa may finally seem to be leaving its Model 3 production bottleneck issues behind, but there’s another problem the company must now address: the car’s profit margin.
After completing a 6600-hour teardown of the car, automotive analysis firm Munro & Associates found plenty of positives, at least. Company founder Sandy Munro praised the software and powertrain, which was deemed to be superior what the competition is working with. In a video posted a few months back (below), Munroe noted that the car should be “solidly profitable,” but it’s being hampered by bad design choices.
“If that car was made anywhere else, and Elon wasn’t part of the manufacturing process, they would make a lot of money…They’re just learning all the old mistakes everyone else made years ago,” Munroe said.
The steel and aluminium frame at the base of the car has been given as an example. It’s intended to make the car safer - and indeed the Model 3 has done extremely well in crash tests - but with the battery already adding stiffness to the car’s floor, the frame merely adds cost and weight with little advantage.
Then there’s the boot well, manufactured from several pieces of aluminium, where many rivals just use one piece of fibreglass. “This body is their single biggest problem…It’s killing them,” Munroe concluded. He’s sent 227 Model 3 improvement suggestions to the company.
Tesla is yet to directly respond to Munroe’s latest comments, but it has previously pointed out that the teardown car was an earlier example, and that production has since improved. The Californian company has also revealed a cheaper rear-wheel drive version of the Model 3 this week, which starts at $45,000 before incentives.
Source: Bloomberg
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
It figures, Tesla has one problem after another.
Taking safety to the extreme I guess
Volvo’s are praised for being heavy tanks but it’s wrong if Tesla makes a car safe
Wow thanks for telling us again like we haven’t heard these complaints before, thanks guys.
Motoring journalists: covers topic thoroughly and then sets it aside
Matt R & Matt K, days or even weeks later: “Yo bro can I copy your homework?”
To be expected; Tesla is still a very small manufacturer
Could probably spot as many (if not more) problems with similar sized manufacturers
True test is whether they can improve based on the recommendations
True. I dont never understand the hate for Teslas. They make amazing cars, at fairly good budgets.
Only thing i hate is Elon. He’s single Handley ruining the company
And people still deny that Tesla sucks
I mean, if 5 star crash test ratings and Outselling several major motor companies equal sucking then call that a badge of honour.
I think Tesla did a Saab here… launched an unfinished car that costs their head.
But still… I’d rather drive a Saab
More proof of how difficult it is to make a viable startup selling mass-market cars. Either you make extremely expensive hand-crafted cars where only a few dozen have to built per year to make a profit (Pagani, Koenigsegg, Rimac), or you make spartan cars where nobody cares about these things (Ariel, BAC). Imho they should have left the mass-market thing to established manufacturers and gone straight to the Roadster 2.0.
You just post hate posts about Tesla super lame
Is there anything good to say?
Looking at the tweet from Elon, the car will start at 35,000 usd before incentives, not 45,000 usd as stated in the article above
Tesla: complicated, bad quality and bad customer service.