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> electric vehicles require a lot less labor to manufacture That's awesome! But I'm confused... why do Tesla's cars take so much more man hours to manufactur

> electric vehicles require a lot less labor to manufacture That's awesome! But I'm confused... why do Tesla's cars take so much more man hours to manufacture than other cars then? If electric cars take less labor and everybody knows that Tesla is lightyears ahead of all those dinosaur traditional manufacturers, wtf are Tesla's employees spending their time on?

zhdc1 7y ago
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/electric-vehicles-pose-real-risk-autoworkers-halving-number-people-required-n1060426 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/electric-vehicles-pos... Think component suppliers. Electric cars require a lot less parts, which is going to hurt component suppliers & the people who work for them a lot.
rco8786 7y ago
Semi guess here. But OP maybe meant that electric motors require less labor to manufacture more specifically. Tesla’s come up to speed on actual mass manufacturing of the vehicles themselves has resulted in a lot of manual work that other big manufacturers would have been able to automate. This was a big “scandal” with the Model 3...where it was reported that some things were being done by hand that normally wouldn’t be
- zhdc1 7y ago
  It's not just the car itself - although the UAW GM strike was partially about that. It's everything else that goes into manufacturing the car. US example: only around 300k people are employed by GM, Ford, and Crystler (excluding the rest of FCA). Let's assume that the total figure rises to 1m once you account for everyone employed by foreign manufacturers in the US, Tesla, &c. Another 7m people are directly (component manufacturers) or indirectly (e.g., dealers) employed by companies in or who are associated with the US automotive sector. A non trivial number of jobs in the 1m bucket are going to be lost over the next decade because of electrification. A much larger number and percentage of jobs are going to be lost in the 7m bucket over the same time frame.
Bombthecat 7y ago
I think there was an article about that. They wanted to move fast. Very fast. Human labor is quicker "ready to work". Robots needed to be designed, ordered, produced, shipped, tested, reprogrammed etc before they are ready. And at the end of the day, if it is easy, repeatible work. Humans are not that expensive. (for the flexibility they offer)
bgarbiak 7y ago
What's awesome about less labor being needed to manufacture a car? Asking genuinely in good faith.
- zhdc1 7y ago
  From the perspective that a lot of jobs are going to be displaced? Not much.

zhdc1 7y ago

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/electric-vehicles-pose-real-risk-autoworkers-halving-number-people-required-n1060426 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/electric-vehicles-pos... Think component suppliers. Electric cars require a lot less parts, which is going to hurt component suppliers & the people who work for them a lot.

rco8786 7y ago

Semi guess here. But OP maybe meant that electric motors require less labor to manufacture more specifically. Tesla’s come up to speed on actual mass manufacturing of the vehicles themselves has resulted in a lot of manual work that other big manufacturers would have been able to automate. This was a big “scandal” with the Model 3...where it was reported that some things were being done by hand that normally wouldn’t be

zhdc1 7y ago
It's not just the car itself - although the UAW GM strike was partially about that. It's everything else that goes into manufacturing the car. US example: only around 300k people are employed by GM, Ford, and Crystler (excluding the rest of FCA). Let's assume that the total figure rises to 1m once you account for everyone employed by foreign manufacturers in the US, Tesla, &c. Another 7m people are directly (component manufacturers) or indirectly (e.g., dealers) employed by companies in or who are associated with the US automotive sector. A non trivial number of jobs in the 1m bucket are going to be lost over the next decade because of electrification. A much larger number and percentage of jobs are going to be lost in the 7m bucket over the same time frame.

Bombthecat 7y ago

I think there was an article about that. They wanted to move fast. Very fast. Human labor is quicker "ready to work". Robots needed to be designed, ordered, produced, shipped, tested, reprogrammed etc before they are ready. And at the end of the day, if it is easy, repeatible work. Humans are not that expensive. (for the flexibility they offer)

bgarbiak 7y ago

What's awesome about less labor being needed to manufacture a car? Asking genuinely in good faith.

zhdc1 7y ago
From the perspective that a lot of jobs are going to be displaced? Not much.