Interesting, it doesn't feel like this at all, to me. It seems that, relative to its market share, a lot of Tesla buyers make the brand part of their identity. Who "settles" on a Tesla when they don't care about what they drive?
If it were easy, we'd see a lot more profitable car companies.
Take a car with 4 motors, 1 per wheel (which is the best arrangement). The total list of moving parts.
- wheels - suspension linkage - driveshafts - brakes - pedals - windows - wipers - coolant pump - washer fluid pump - seats - frunk/trunk
Thats the list of moving parts. Dunno where you got 1000 moving parts from. Most each one of those has reliable manufacturers that have figured out how to build them correctly.
Reliable manufactures? Auto suppliers are notorious for being unreliable - the supply chains are exceedingly complex, there's constant pressure to drive down cost and quality control lapses are a constant issue.
Not to mention each vehicle has hundreds of different suppliers and an issue in any one of them will grind your manufacturing line to a standstill.
I mean, for Apple, it absolutely makes sense.
Electric vehicles are relatively straightforward to make. Everyone and their mother are producing some sort of electric scooter/dirt bike these days with new companies popping up every month. Furthermore Tesla has proven that for a lot of people a car is simply an appliance.
Apple could easily outsource most of the functional development and design and certification, and then focus on their core competency which is aesthetics and marketing and integration into iOS ecosystem, which would be a winning combo economically.