Munro & Associates spent 6,600 hours disassembling a Model 3 and concluded they spent "$2,000 more to produce a Model 3 than BMW spends building a similarly-priced i3."
Are you about to point out that the i3 costs more than the 3, but is the size of my Accord, and only has 126 - 153 miles of range?
Too late!
Sandy Munro says that Tesla is inexperienced with manufacturing. The body’s design is too complicated and more expensive to build. “They’re just learning all the old mistakes everyone else made years ago,” Munro told Bloomberg. The steel and aluminum frame Tesla incorporates to enhance safety is unnecessary because the battery pack already lies in the floor and stiffens the vehicle, making the added stampings redundant.
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Rather than using a single piece of aluminum or fiberglass [for the trunk well], the Model 3 uses nine pieces. All the pieces are then riveted, welded and sealed together – a more complex setup than other automakers’ production models. In the end, Munro reportedly sent Tesla a free list of 227 suggestions to improve the profitability in their manufacturing process.
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Tesla currently employs 10,000 people at its Fremont plant and targets 5,000 Model 3s per week. At peak production, Toyota and GM build 450,000 cars a year with 4,400 workers--9,000 a week. Tesla may do more work in-house, but do they really need four times as many employees per car made?
The Tesla Model 3 Is ‘Needlessly’ Complicated to Assemble, According to Analysts