[amluto]

I think Tesla could have taken an alternative, if very non-Elon-Musky approach. Their stock was sky-high based on the assumption that they could dominate EV production and sell huge volume for several years. Instead of building an entire new assembly line from scratch with debt financing, Tesla could have gone big. They could have done an equity deal to buy an entire car company with a flexible assembly line. They could have continued producing the legacy cars and produced Teslas. And they could have taken advantage of the acquired expertise and supply lines to get NUMI up and running much more efficiently.

Subaru, for example, would have been a bargain.

[grizzles]

I don't think Tesla would get enough out of the deal since product changes require factory revamps that are hugely expensive due to all the write offs.

It's an awesome idea though. I wonder if it could be adapted slightly. Maybe a related one would be for Tesla to buy a new battery factory / batteries or a massive amount of cobalt+lithium with equity. Those would all save them a ton of cash in the short term.

[amluto]

I think that modern car assembly lines are designed to be very adjustable. Big car companies introduce new body shapes all the time, and it’s no big deal. And they already have full supply lines to build seats with seatbelts, seats with airbags, trunks, sunroofs, etc. The only major difference between a Model 3 and, say, a new variant of any other sedan is the drive train and battery. Tesla could have focused on that and let existing experts built the rest of the car.