| >how does it make the least bit of sense to focus on increasing volume? It's easier to amortize the investments in quality. Also, a less expensive car tends to be less complex, it's easier to make a high quality bare bones car than a high quality luxury car. Tesla is unique in that they started with luxury cars, all the other car companies that have started in last 100 years have started with more basic cars. >Electric cars being simpler to manufacture makes it more of a red flag that Tesla is struggling with build quality Yes and no. Compare Tesla to a bespoke car manufacturer, Tesla isn't shipping cars with loose radiator hoses but Lotus sometimes does (or they used to). >It indicates that build quality is the harder-won competitive advantage, rather than the ability to design electric cars, the PR boost of having a "visionary founder", or being able to tap Silicon Valley for cash. I think you're right on this point. It's a fundamental reason I'm not an investor in Tesla. >If that's the case, it's probably easier for Toyota to design, build, and sell electric cars as well as Tesla than for like Tesla to manufacture cars as well as Toyota. I completely agree. The only reason we haven't seen a battery electric, mass produced Toyota is because batteries just don't perform well enough. Toyota has uncompromising quality standards for all their cars - they need to work in hot deserts and cold tundras, batteries can't function in those environments very well. That's one of the reasons they stuck with NiMH for so long in their hybrids and one of the reasons they seem to have the most interest in glass batteries. However, quality isn't the only thing that sells cars. More people bought Mitsuibishis/Nissans/Renaults from Jan to October 2017 than they bought Toyotas. I think there's room for one more good automaker, and I think Tesla's quality is 'good enough' for rabid fans, I think they can get there for 'normies', but the overlander / jihadist / 3rd world taxi crowd isn't going to give up Toyotas for Teslas any time soon. |