Elon Musk told when not to buy Tesla cars

The head of Tesla Elon Musk has suspended activity on Twitter, but this does not mean that he went entirely to work in real life. So, on Tuesday, he found time to participate in a live chat with technical consultant Sandy Munro on YouTube Munro Live. Munroe is a well-known critic of Tesla cars. For example, in 2018, he rated the build quality of a brand new Model 3 on par with Kia cars from the 1990s. One could expect that the dialogue between these two people would be interesting, and it turned out that way.

During the conversation, Musk and Munroe discussed a lot of things: autopilot, batteries, seats, but the most interesting part of the conversation concerns quality control. According to Musk, he is often asked when is the best time to buy a Tesla car, to which he replies: “Either buy it [авто] at the very beginning of production, or when it [производство] will reach a stable level“. At the same time, according to Musk, it is not worth buying a Tesla during a production ramp-up, since in such a situation it is difficult to keep track of all the little things, and quality control is reduced.

An example of this is December 2020. The company tried very hard to meet the annual delivery plan, as a result of which there were problems with painting: on some cars, the paint simply did not have time to dry to the desired degree. That is, the technological process was not kept up. In the end, Musk summed up: “Manufacturing is hell”… And it’s hard to disagree with him, especially when the company sets itself ambitious goals. In this light, Apple’s actions in its project to create its own electric car look very logical: instead of setting up its own auto factories, Apple entrusted it to KIA Motors, which has a ready-made plant in Georgia (USA). This approach not only speeds up the production of cars, but also guarantees consistent quality.