6 replies to this topic

[mariner]

As social media didn't exist at Henry Ford's time Tesla must be the most discussed auto company ever. Most of the talk is of how "radical, revolutionary, paradigm breaking " etc Tesla is. 

I am not so sure, maybe Tesla is just like Henry Ford's Model T company and Nordhoff’s ' post WW2 Volkswagen. By that I mean Henry had just one factory, very vertically integrated making one product in "any colour you liked as long as its black”.

 

Nordhoff’s VW similarly had just Wolfsburg, huge and self-contained, making just the Beetle. 

 

Tesla had only on factory for its first seven years and , putting aside the now low volume S makes , really on one model the 3 - I believe the Y is just a higher shell on the same platform.

 

Tesla has spent huge amounts on its production plants and it makes a lot in house, casting its own subframes and making its batteries. It emphasises focusing on value engineering snd component/ assembly simplification - sounds like Ford/GM/ Toyota until 15 - 20 years ago. It also has very limited colours white, blue, red. black  and maybe grey?).

 

Like Henry Ford Tesla has cut prices to boost volumes something most OEM’s abandoned years ago .

 

So, I wonder if a lot of Tesla' success isn't revolution but sticking to the knitting the way legacy OEM's did before multi factories, multi products and multi colours ?

 

[gruntguru]

So Tesla could the Ford of the 21st century? Wow.

[Greg Locock]

River Rouge here we come! 28 hours from iron ore to finished car. My impression is that as the unions pushed for higher pay (and succeeded) the dreaded bean counters (tiresome cliche) decided that offloading making parts to less well paid suppliers made sense. 

[mariner]

It was this video that started me thinking about how "old school" Tesla is in some ways - not design or marketing of course .

 

 

Of course Tesla has special dedicated battery factory as apart of its vertical integration but back in the day GM had a specialised Transmission factory near Detroit that was , i suspect just as hi tech and specialised inside.

 

https://www.autoweek...n-plant-closes/

 

I remember driving past it in the 1970's and could not believe how vast it was.

Edited by mariner, 21 November 2023 - 14:41.

[MikeTekRacing]

The ability to innovate manufacturing (Ford did it with the assembly line, Tesla did it with gigacastings) is very underrated. People don't see it and shrug it off - but that is what allows great production costs, profit margins that can be used to build new factories and expand.
I have said it a few times ago, designing a better car is not that hard (I mean it's hard, but a lot of companies can do it). Building it for that cost to sell it at that price they are currently at AND making money is really, really hard. 

Vertical integration gives a lot of control - and, unfortunately, the car industry moved away from it. 

In the tech world it was clearly the winning game (see Apple)

[Greg Locock]

I like the seats for the interior fit-out guys, scrambling in and out of cars is a big cause of back injuries, but they are pretty scary, humans and robot arms are not a great combination. I saw humans doing some rather odd jobs, stacking things for example.

 

Getting people out of the stamping plant is a big step forward.

[Magoo]

River Rouge here we come! 28 hours from iron ore to finished car. My impression is that as the unions pushed for higher pay (and succeeded) the dreaded bean counters (tiresome cliche) decided that offloading making parts to less well paid suppliers made sense. 

 

Yes. Also, when all the production takes place inside the Biggest Thing in All the World, and you need oh, say, a steering box or a dash bracket, it  may be easier to go to an outside supplier than to try to wrestle with Leviathan.