There are several Tesla stories today, none of them any good.
Brake and Roll
Elon Musk ordered Tesla engineers to stop doing a critical brake and roll test on Model 3s cars.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk ordered his employees to stop putting nearly finished Model 3s through a critical test before leaving the company’s factory in Fremont, California, according to an internal document viewed by Business Insider.
Ron Harbour, a consultant at Oliver Wyman who founded and writes “The Harbour Report,” a worldwide guide to manufacturing, told Business Insider that after everything is installed in a car during the manufacturing process, a manufacturer would have to be very lucky for everything on a car to be in alignment.
“If you just abandon [the test], you could potentially have a lot of quality issues with your customers,” he said. “Every plant does that … It’s part of finishing the build of the car.”
Harbour told Business Insider he was unaware of any test that could adequately replace the brake-and-roll test on a manufacturing line.
Reservations and Deliveries Decline
Goldman Sachs is unimpressed by Tesla meeting its Model 3 goal.
- Goldman Sachs is not impressed with Tesla’s production announcement and reiterates its sell rating for the company’s shares, noting net Model 3 reservations declined to 420,000 from 455,000 last year.
- Tesla said Monday it reached its one-week production goal of 5,000 Model 3 cars for the last week of the June quarter. But the company fell short on its second-quarter deliveries by posting 40,740 vehicles delivered versus the Wall Street consensus expectation of approximately 51,000.
Shouting Elon Musk Changes Rules on the Fly
CNBC comments on a shouting Elon Musk and changing rules.
A tense and short-tempered Chief Executive Elon Musk barked at engineers on the Fremont, California assembly line. Tesla pulled workers from other departments to keep pumping out the Model 3 electric sedans, disrupting production of the Model S and X lines. And weekend shifts were mandatory.
Leading up to Sunday morning’s production milestone, Musk paced the Model 3 line, snapping at his engineers when the around-the-clock production slowed or stopped due to problems with robots, one worker said. Tesla built a new line in just two weeks in a huge tent outside the main factory, an unprecedented move in an industry that takes years to plan out its assembly lines, and said the tented production area accounted for 20 percent of the Model 3s produced last week.
“They were borrowing people from our line all day to cover their (Model 3) breaks so the line would continue to move,” said a Model S worker on Sunday.
Because of the focus on the Model 3, the S line is about 800 cars behind, the worker said.
“They’ve been throwing Model 3s ahead of the S to get painted to try to assure that they make their goal of 5,000,” the worker said. “The paint department can’t handle the volume.”
“He (Musk) is gonna go through an awful lot of people because people are gonna start getting hurt left and right,” by the fast-moving assembly line, a worker said.
Crap Quality
For discussion of the 300 dropped welds, please see Model 3 Assembly Line: Detailed Images of Tesla’s “On the Fly” Manufacturing.
The quality of these rushed vehicles is guaranteed to be crap, just to make a self-imposed production number.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Predatory short sellers? What a F’ng joke.
More color on disinformation propaganda in this “article” that reiterates short lies without any significant data checks. Title of linked article is apropo
Mish, how long is wait for you to retract the debunked claim that Tesla does not test Model 3 brakes? Don’t want your readers mislead do we?
Hello Wagner, how have you been?
The short directed media campaign against Tesla is well clarified by the following description (
Stuki, as far as “fed welfare” recipients goes, Detroit auto companies have been bailed out numerous times, and the oil industry has received massive subsidies as well as multi-trillions of taxpayer dollars controlling the Middle East oil supply. But in your world, Tesla incentives shared by other auto companies makes Tesla the villian?
“Tesla is not dumb.” is it fair to assume they are in over their head?
And an “analyst” at JP Morgan says GE is “extremely overvalued” at $13.
I think we have reached Peak Financial Insanity.
Yet somehow it still costs $310 to buy a single share of this colossal fraud.
“Brian1, companies are legally obligated to do what is best for shareholders”
Was it best for shareholders for Musk to hide his ownership stake in SolarCity so they could bail him out by acquiring it? They’re winding down operations now and Tesla shareholders are on the hook for their billions in debt. That’s textbook securities fraud.
“Tesla made an effort to meet “goals”. How strange for a company to do such a thing!!! OMG!!!”
While no longer “strange” in our financialized Dystopias; where what makes or breaks you has less to do with what you do, than what you appear to Fed welfare recipients to be doing; focus on immediate/short term “goals” and “metrics”, is rarely the way to quality work.
Knowledge that my Hospital Group had just turned up the speed on the surgery “production line,” would certainly have me a bit concerned, and perhaps looking into alternatives, if I needed surgery. Not sure if an explanation that the speed got turned up to meet “goals” set to “please investors” would make me feel any more comfortable….
In general, if you want to build quality autos, you can do a lot worse than attempting to emulate Toyota. And those guys haven’t been focused on meeting production “goals” by a deadline since, like, forever. They haven’t even focused much on the cars they produce for quite some time. Instead focusing on optimizing the processes they employ, that over time have proven to result in good cars.
Waaaay to abstract, long term, and complimecated a thought process for the average Fed welfare recipient’s bonus horizon no doubt. But then again; building quality cars really is a bit more complicated than simply collecting welfare and trying to rationalize it.
Brian1, companies are legally obligated to do what is best for shareholders, and even shorts have said Tesla would have been dumb to go over the quota. Tesla is not dumb.
Brian1, too clarify there is ZERO EVIDENCE that Tesla cars were sold without a brake test (assuming that is standard) or that reducing some spot welds was done irresponsibly. How in your world does that equate to “beyond obvious” ???
So it’s all just accounting gimmicks. And that’s a good thing. Got it.
Gee whiz it is “beyond obvious” Tesla made an effort to meet “goals”. How strange for a company to do such a thing!!! OMG!!! Are u serious with such an embarrassingly naive statement? And please site the data saying Musk said 5000/week will be sold rather than produced, which is what the tax credit relates to? You are ignorant about the facts and reading your negativity into it.
This cheerleading is just embarrassing now. It is beyond obvious that corners were cut just so Musk could attempt to save face. Still no clear explanation of what “factory gated” even means. Your excuses contradict themselves: If the tax credits were at risk from overproduction then why did Musk promise 5000/week for June to end Q2?
If this was all a plot by the shorts why aren’t you thanking them for giving you such great buying opportunities?
Shorts working media sources to max. No such micro analysis of other autos is there? Headlines inferring Tesla selling cars not brake tested ?!!!?, BUT only data refers to “test .. shut down before 3 a.m. on June 26, .. unclear why…halted or for how long”. Hit piece article gives no “color” that Tesla may simply be managing their output delaying such tests, particularly as with stockpiling cars to work around tax incentives in play.
Outrageously bad journalism, from screen shots/data theft of fired short’s employee agent being sued by Tesla? Interesting that Mish lets loose at the end of article with a gratuitous “quality of these rushed vehicles is guaranteed to be crap”.
So Mish what “guarantee” are you offering? I am possibly interested!
Let’s see how many people cancel orders now, or even refuse to take delivery until the brake and roll test is performed. Does a NTSB step in? How about USDOT? Does the SEC halt trading in TSLA shares due to potential fraud? Do lenders pull financing for new vehicles?
Which is going to happen first?
I wonder if TSLA is going to up their reserve for anticipated product safety claims? Should be a field day for product liability lawyers.
No he won’t. He has an army of The True Believers (Eic Hoffer circa 1951) who tend to be Maserati Marxists and Virtue Signalers (I am greener than you are) who shop at Whole Foods and who will in a few years, if not months, a very expensive if not green “doorstop!
Elon Musk is going to get his balls sued off.
I am absolutely amazed that Elon Musk didn’t think it was important to have a staff that could design a factory capable of producing 5000 cars a week. Much less provide the capital expenditures and staff training necessary to make it happen. That is absolutely pathetic.
I feel so sorry for all of those nice, yet naive folks who plunked down real, hard earned money for a new Model 3. They trusted Elon Musk and he let them down. They are going to get a poorly manufactured product, years behind when they thought they would, and almost certainly costing far more than they planned.