In a new interview, Elon Musk agrees with a serious criticism of Telsa Inc. vehicles and discourages buying Tesla vehicles during a production drive.
The extraordinarily candid interview – even for an extraordinarily candid CEO like Musk – with Sandy Munro, an engineering consultant, aired on the “Munro Live” YouTube channel and podcast on Tuesday.
Musk received a blunt answer when asked about quality control issues: ‘It took us a while to iron out the production process like this. Friends ask me, ‘When should I buy a Tesla?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, buy it right at the beginning, or if the production has a steady state. During the production ramp, it is very difficult to be in vertical climbing mode and get everything right with the small details. ”
Paint issues also appeared in December, Musk said, in the pressure to produce as many cars as possible before the end of the year. “One of the things that happened when we were increasing production was that the paint was not necessarily dry enough,” he said. ‘It’s like, if you go faster … that is, you just discover these things. Like: If we knew them beforehand, we would fix them in advance. ”
“Production is hell,” Musk said.
This may be of concern to future buyers, as Tesla TSLA,
plans to open new factories in Texas and Germany in the coming months and begin production of the Cybertruck pickup and Semi-large rig by the end of the year.
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During a hard break of 2018, Munro compared the Tesla Model 3 sedan to a cunning Kia from the nineties. “I can not imagine how they released it,” he said at the time. (Munro came later and likes later versions of Model 3.)
In the interview, Musk said he agrees with Munro. “I thought your criticism was accurate,” Musk said.
Musk also admitted that the seats in the early versions of the Model S were awful, “probably the worst seat of any car I’ve ever sat in,” Musk said, adding that he called the seat a “rocking chair.” This spurred a much more comfortable seat design in the Model 3, which complimented Munro.
Munro is not the only one criticizing Tesla’s quality. Consumer Reports gave Tesla second place from the bottom on a reliability survey last year. “Only the Model 3 sedan is reliable,” Consumer Reports said in November, with the Model S, Model X SUV and Model Y compact SUV as downshifted.
However, this did not hurt Tesla much. The company delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles last year, and analysts expect the number to grow to 800,000 this year. Tesla shares have soared more than 480% over the past twelve months.