8 ms·

I would love a Tesla but man those numbers would be a bit frightening if I were planning on purchasing one soon.. I don't see how they could scale up like that

I would love a Tesla but man those numbers would be a bit frightening if I were planning on purchasing one soon.. I don't see how they could scale up like that for a brand new model and not have quality problems. Best of luck to them!

vanattab 10y ago
You hit the nail on the head. It's the scaling/quality control problems that are the biggest risk. Also, from what I understand there have been quite a lot of problems with the different telsa models to date, but the top notch tesla service has been able to keep customers happy. That level of customer service is much easier to provide when selling a few $100,000 cars then when mass producing $30,000 cars.
- chiph 10y ago
  The mechanics in /r/justrolledintotheshop complain about parts availability and the constant rolling changes. The door handles on the Model S are apparently up to revision "G".
  - ovao 10y ago
    Assuming Tesla parts start with "A" or no letter suffix, that actually doesn't seem too bad, in my experience. The Ford Focus I owned several years ago had 34 revisions made to the door handle assembly by the time I had to replace mine.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
sundvor 10y ago
Yep agree 100% with you there. If anything I'd want a model revision coming a year or two down the track.
- gozur88 10y ago
  This. I don't want the first model year of any brand new chassis. Problems inevitably crop up even for companies like Toyota and Daimler.
fmihaila 10y ago
It's worth noting that the first production cars are to be delivered to the Tesla employees who reserved one. This should have a positive impact on quality, both in terms of motivation ("the car I'm working on is mine"), and by having a shorter debug-fix-test cycle. (I have no idea how many employee reservations there are.)
- Waterluvian 10y ago
  You should see the Tesla employee parking lot. Most of the people working on these cars will never afford one.
  - spectrum1234 10y ago
    ?? Tesla Model 3 full cost of ownership, esp including tax incentives in CA (where factory is) literally is the cheapest car on the market.
    - Waterluvian 10y ago
      I guess I'm jaded from my week spent there. It was a whole different world to me. One lady talked to me about how this is her second job today and that she can barely make it on time to today's safety training because of the bus schedules. The parking lot was an ocean of beat up cars. The perception I got was that nobody on the production floor would ever own these cars.
      - snarf 10y ago
        I imagine there is a huge difference in the employee pool between their Fremont factory location and their Palo Alto office location. Of course, Tesla is not exactly known to pay even their engineers very well: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/08/working-tesla-meaning-stress-relatively-low-pay/ http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/08/working-tesla-meaning-str...
      - J-dawg 10y ago
        That just seems really sad. I've read that Tesla doesn't pay exceptionally well, expects people to work really long hours, and doesn't offer an employee discount because Elon doesn't believe in it. Despite all this I've always imagined it to be a great place to work because of the world-changing potential of the work. But the idea of all these people toiling away on an amazing product they can't even hope to own just seems incredibly depressing. I guess it's no different to all the people making iPhones in China, it just hits closer to home.

vanattab 10y ago

You hit the nail on the head. It's the scaling/quality control problems that are the biggest risk. Also, from what I understand there have been quite a lot of problems with the different telsa models to date, but the top notch tesla service has been able to keep customers happy. That level of customer service is much easier to provide when selling a few $100,000 cars then when mass producing $30,000 cars.

chiph 10y ago
The mechanics in /r/justrolledintotheshop complain about parts availability and the constant rolling changes. The door handles on the Model S are apparently up to revision "G".
- ovao 10y ago
  Assuming Tesla parts start with "A" or no letter suffix, that actually doesn't seem too bad, in my experience. The Ford Focus I owned several years ago had 34 revisions made to the door handle assembly by the time I had to replace mine.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

sundvor 10y ago

Yep agree 100% with you there. If anything I'd want a model revision coming a year or two down the track.

gozur88 10y ago
This. I don't want the first model year of any brand new chassis. Problems inevitably crop up even for companies like Toyota and Daimler.

fmihaila 10y ago

It's worth noting that the first production cars are to be delivered to the Tesla employees who reserved one. This should have a positive impact on quality, both in terms of motivation ("the car I'm working on is mine"), and by having a shorter debug-fix-test cycle. (I have no idea how many employee reservations there are.)

Waterluvian 10y ago
You should see the Tesla employee parking lot. Most of the people working on these cars will never afford one.
- spectrum1234 10y ago
  ?? Tesla Model 3 full cost of ownership, esp including tax incentives in CA (where factory is) literally is the cheapest car on the market.
  - Waterluvian 10y ago
    I guess I'm jaded from my week spent there. It was a whole different world to me. One lady talked to me about how this is her second job today and that she can barely make it on time to today's safety training because of the bus schedules. The parking lot was an ocean of beat up cars. The perception I got was that nobody on the production floor would ever own these cars.
    - snarf 10y ago
      I imagine there is a huge difference in the employee pool between their Fremont factory location and their Palo Alto office location. Of course, Tesla is not exactly known to pay even their engineers very well: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/08/working-tesla-meaning-stress-relatively-low-pay/ http://www.autoblog.com/2016/03/08/working-tesla-meaning-str...
    - J-dawg 10y ago
      That just seems really sad. I've read that Tesla doesn't pay exceptionally well, expects people to work really long hours, and doesn't offer an employee discount because Elon doesn't believe in it. Despite all this I've always imagined it to be a great place to work because of the world-changing potential of the work. But the idea of all these people toiling away on an amazing product they can't even hope to own just seems incredibly depressing. I guess it's no different to all the people making iPhones in China, it just hits closer to home.