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Pretty big difference between a model that sells 2,500 total units and one that sells millions over 2 decades. A better comparison would be to look at what par

Pretty big difference between a model that sells 2,500 total units and one that sells millions over 2 decades. A better comparison would be to look at what parts availability is on a limited run sports car.

paulddraper 7y ago
You're right; that's a good point. The are specialized vehicles akin to a rare sports car; it's unfair to compare it to mass market vehicles.
mbreese 7y ago
Not only the limited run nature, but part of this has also got to be the big supplier network that is available for other cars. How many custom parts are there on a Tesla Roadster compared to other cars? There are large supplier networks that can supply many (most? all?) of the internal parts required to build a complete car (sport or otherwise). I’ve got to think that the ratio skews heavily to the side of custom for any of the Tesla. This is where Tesla’s intense vertical integration starts to be a detriment. I was just reading an article about how the vertical integration of Tesla was amazing in that it made it possible for custom components to be used that saved space and weight by performing more than one job [0]. This is great - until you need to replace that one specialized part and you can’t seem to find it. I laughed when I was looking at the cup holder for my new car. It’s a 2018 Audi A3. The rear cup holder is the same junky design that I had to replace multiple times in an old 2000 Jetta. It’s not a great design, even-though it saves space. However, because of all of the available suppliers for that part, I know I’ll be able to find a replacement of this for years. This type of parts availability is a blessing (you can find one cheap) and a curse (you are limited in how you can design the car by the parts that are already available, thus you can only have a barely functional cup holder). [0] https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-superbottle-disruption-video/ https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-superbottle-disrupti...
- userbinator 7y ago
  This is great - until you need to replace that one specialized part and you can’t seem to find it. ...or when that multifunction part fails and renders much of the car inoperable. Odd that that article about the Superbottle mentions "increased modularity" as an advantage, when it clearly decreases modularity to integrate so many functions into one monolithic part.
johncalvinyoung 7y ago
Yup. Try a first gen Jaguar XK8. Not crazy rare, many small towns have one or two. Gorgeous cars. But despite Ford owning Jag for a while, and some shared parts, you’d better hope you don’t need repairs. Only ~50k made in the whole world across the whole ten years of production. And that’s not even partitioning for body style or revision. Some critical parts are scarcer than hens’ teeth.

paulddraper 7y ago

You're right; that's a good point. The are specialized vehicles akin to a rare sports car; it's unfair to compare it to mass market vehicles.

mbreese 7y ago

Not only the limited run nature, but part of this has also got to be the big supplier network that is available for other cars. How many custom parts are there on a Tesla Roadster compared to other cars? There are large supplier networks that can supply many (most? all?) of the internal parts required to build a complete car (sport or otherwise). I’ve got to think that the ratio skews heavily to the side of custom for any of the Tesla. This is where Tesla’s intense vertical integration starts to be a detriment. I was just reading an article about how the vertical integration of Tesla was amazing in that it made it possible for custom components to be used that saved space and weight by performing more than one job [0]. This is great - until you need to replace that one specialized part and you can’t seem to find it. I laughed when I was looking at the cup holder for my new car. It’s a 2018 Audi A3. The rear cup holder is the same junky design that I had to replace multiple times in an old 2000 Jetta. It’s not a great design, even-though it saves space. However, because of all of the available suppliers for that part, I know I’ll be able to find a replacement of this for years. This type of parts availability is a blessing (you can find one cheap) and a curse (you are limited in how you can design the car by the parts that are already available, thus you can only have a barely functional cup holder). [0] https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-superbottle-disruption-video/ https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-superbottle-disrupti...

userbinator 7y ago
This is great - until you need to replace that one specialized part and you can’t seem to find it. ...or when that multifunction part fails and renders much of the car inoperable. Odd that that article about the Superbottle mentions "increased modularity" as an advantage, when it clearly decreases modularity to integrate so many functions into one monolithic part.

johncalvinyoung 7y ago

Yup. Try a first gen Jaguar XK8. Not crazy rare, many small towns have one or two. Gorgeous cars. But despite Ford owning Jag for a while, and some shared parts, you’d better hope you don’t need repairs. Only ~50k made in the whole world across the whole ten years of production. And that’s not even partitioning for body style or revision. Some critical parts are scarcer than hens’ teeth.