Don’t buy a Tesla when we ramp up production
No time right now?
Tesla boss Elon Musk chatted about problems with the quality of his e-cars in an interview. Accordingly, customers should not buy Teslas when production is ramped up.
According to a study from 2020, new Tesla vehicles should have more problems during the first 90 days than new vehicles from a total of 31 other US manufacturers. According to Tesla customers, the quality defects include, in particular, paint defects, poor fit of body parts, and squeaks and rattles. In an interview with the industry expert Sandy Munro, Tesla CEO Musk now quite frankly explained why this could be.
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Quality suffers when production is ramped up
The quality of Tesla cars suffers every time the manufacturer increases production, so Musk. At the end of 2020, for example, the electric cars were assembled so quickly that they got confused when painting. Apparently, the attempt to reach the 500,000 Teslas mark in 2020 – which ultimately just worked – put pressure on compliance and control of certain quality features.
It took a while to iron out the production errors, quotes the US tech magazine The Verge the Tesla boss. He therefore advises friends to buy a Tesla either right at the start of production or when production has reached a stable state. During the ramp-up phase of production, it is very difficult to bring all the small details under one roof.
Tesla only got paint problems on Model 3 under control in December. “While production was ramping up, we realized that the paint wasn’t drying well enough,” said Musk. When you speed up production, you can see things like that. If you had known this beforehand, you would have fixed it beforehand, according to the Tesla boss.
Elon Musk agrees to harsh criticism from 2018
It is also interesting that Musk ennobled a harsh criticism that Munro expressed in 2018 of the then new Model 3. At that time Munro compared the quality of the Tesla with a Kia from the 1990s – not very flattering. According to Munro, he cannot explain how Tesla is putting such a car on the market. Speaking to the industry expert, Musk now said that he thought Munro’s criticism was justified.
Also interesting: Cybertruck assembly should cost Tesla only 600 dollars per vehicle
