Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to Market

Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by samfisher83 on Thursday August 03, 2017 @09:56AM (#14919573)

I think a slower roll out would be prudent. If you burn all your cash and you are forced to raise cash it puts you in a bad situation. This is brand new car. Companies like Toyota have issues with their cars and they generally only make incremental changes to each model, and Toyota Production System is probably one of most taught and studied system for production.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by dev1n on Thursday August 03, 2017 @09:58AM (#14919591)

If you haven't seen a review on the model 3 I highly suggest MKBHD's review. He goes over how a lot of pieces of a standard car are stripped out (I.e. No physical buttons) this was to reduce manufacturing complexity and increase production speed. Toyota does not build cars like the way Tesla has engineered this end to end.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by nicpottier on Thursday August 03, 2017 @12:34PM (#14921061)

I watched that video as well and some of the stuff just doesn't make sense.

It is "cheaper and simpler" to have a software button actuate a relay to open my glovebox than having a simple latch? It is going to be easier to have electric actuators for redirecting air than having plastic blades I move myself?

It doesn't hold water. These are crazy Musk fantasies being realized like the gull wing doors, not because they are cheaper, easier or more reliable.

Don't get me wrong, I love Tesla, Musk and really love the model 3, but the reasoning just doesn't make sense.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by samfisher83 on Thursday August 03, 2017 @10:13AM (#14919733)

The only you can make statement like this is based on data. We will see how the quality of the car once they have a few thousand on the road. Model S has had a bunch of quality issues.

An electric car is theoretically simpler than a gas powered car. It has a battery and a motor. Electric cars were popular before gas cars in early part of the 20th century.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by maxerickson on Thursday August 03, 2017 @10:10AM (#14919695)

Speed is different than labor time per vehicle.

Complex manufacturing is typically a highly parallel process.

For instance, as Tesla ramps up to 5,000 vehicles a week sometime this year, Toyota will sell 30 to 40 thousand vehicles a week just in the US. One of them is obviously producing vehicles faster.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by dev1n on Thursday August 03, 2017 @11:15AM (#14920297)

Toyota has 6 factories in the US while Tesla has one. 30,000 Toyota vehicles divided by 6 factories gives you 5,000 a week. Which is what Tesla is doing.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by maxerickson on Thursday August 03, 2017 @11:22AM (#14920358)

Tesla is planning to produce 5000 vehicles a week.

But my point was that removing buttons isn't the only way to quickly produce cars and it is awkward to praise them for their relatively slow production rate. Praise them for reducing the time devoted to assembling each vehicle.

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Re:Tesla Burns Through Record Cash to Bring the Model 3 to M... by 4rt on Thursday August 03, 2017 @11:05AM (#14920193)

the federal tax credits are structured to expire x months after shipping y units, tesla is working to those constraints.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/01/20/predicting-us-federal-e...

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