I wrote a post in 2018 about Tesla. I said that their engineer and battery technology was the best in the world and reflective of ingenuity and creativity of the best that Silicon Valley has to offer. The rest of the car is a piece of shit that is reflective of the worst of the Silicon Valley mindset of “launch now, patch later” and disinterest in hardware longevity because users will replace it when the newest model comes out in 12-24 months.
Apparently I am not the only engineer who came to that conclusion.
From InsideEVs:
Ford Engineer Claims Tesla Has Big Issues: Shoddy Build, Unsafe Part
Allegedly, a Ford engineer thought it was wise to criticize Tesla for shoddy build quality and other questionable safety concerns, but then the engineer deleted all of the comments. Why?
Probably because Ford dropped a ton of bricks on him because Elon Musk is a supervillain who loves to sue people.
Good thing for us, the internet saved his post.
Hm. Insert classic my opinions don’t represent that of the company statement here.
TBH I love what Tesla has done for EVs. Simultaneously, their engineering is some of the worst shit I have ever seen in any industry. It’s often horrifying. Their tech and engineering in battery and HV electronics and harnessing outpaces the industry by 5yrs easy, but their logistics and quality is so poor I’m astonished that the things have as few problems as they do.
I’ve torn down dozens of vehicles. When we opened our Model 3 when it first came out, it had loose screws dropped randomly in the chassis near sensitive components. The fit and finish of the alignment of panels is ridiculous. Their electronics frequently flaunt safety guidelines and do not meet UL regulations.
So that being said, yes their engineering is top notch. They create custom solutions for vehicle programs that other OEMs could only dream due to the fact that they contract manufacture all of their parts rather than hire auto supplier companies to design it for them. A custom vehicle part for an OEM is 3x the cost of what it would be for Tesla, and the quality of the electronics when you build it in-house is far better than what you can get by adapting an industry design.
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In my personal opinion, I don’t think Tesla is as good at building cars, both from a design/user experience perspective and from a manufacturing/logistics/process perspective, as almost all other OEMs. Does that mean they shouldn’t make cars? Hell no. That platform is something that you can ride to the bank, but at the same time I think you can see in how the Mach-E stacks up the to Model Y that it’s not that hard to make a car that has a soulful identity that resonates with customers that has a great powertrain as well. Cars are emotional creatures and that’s something that Tesla could do better IMO.
Never let it be said that I wasn’t a good forensics engineer, and can’t identify the root cause of problems.
I’d love to start a car company as just a coachbuilder, and buy engines and batteries from Tesla.
What I could accomplish dropping their powertrain into a body designed and built by the engineers I poach from Toyota-Mazda and Honda here in Alabama.
I’ve been happy with my S, though admittedly that one was built some years ago when their volumes were far smaller.
That said, the author of this piece is supposed to be an engineer, yet he speaks of “UL regulations”? There is no such thing.
I’m going to be charitable and assume he meant UL standards rather than regulations. Hanlon’s Razor.
I can’t recall where I saw it, but there’s a guy who has a blog or video blog of the work he has done on his Tesla. His conclusion is that it’s a cast iron bitch to work on because they don’t do anything like any other car maker. That sounds like they deliberately intended to avoid experienced automotive engineers and do it themselves. Frankly, I’d trust a Nissan Leaf or Honda Clarity a lot more than Tesla because they’re both top-tier automakers.
Edit to add: there’s an older Tesla that must be from close to where I live because I see it regularly. It has my absolute favorite vanity license plate, “SKYNET”.
Hard to work on? Well, there’s a lot of “other car” things that don’t apply. But for those that do, some are much easier and some are harder. Changing the 12v battery is harder (it’s buried in an odd place) than in a number of other cars. Not sure if it’s any harder than in a BMW. On the other hand, mine recently had a recall where the mounting bolts for the power steering unit were replaced; that took about 10 minutes because that unit is right out in the open in the front of the car.
I still remember our Saab 9000, where changing the timing belt (or maybe just the fan belt?) required taking off the right front wheel so you could remove the access panel in the RF wheelwell to get access to that part of the engine. In other words, you can probably find crazy stuff in any car. My previous car — Honda Insight — wasn’t pleasant to work on either, with the hybrid power control buried under the battery so it took $2000 just to see if it needed replacing.
Tesla cars lately have shown a decreased quality control standard. If you have an older model it’s likely to be “safer” than a new one.