Friday, August 31, 2012

Quality Is Job One, At Tesla

Tesla's plan has always been to start out with low production volume, one car a day, to carefully check vehicle assembly and catch any issues early in the game before too many vehicles are delivered and it becomes more difficult to fix any problems.  This is exactly what they have been doing.  Apparently there were some problems with the quality of chrome on the door handles so they switched suppliers, which caused a slight delay.  There was also an issue with a sensor, that also caused a recent delay, but that too has been addressed.  Detractors of course jumped on these minor issues as a sign of Tesla's failure, but in reality they simply prove that Tesla is handling things in the best way possible.  People are getting their cars and loving them, and reviews have been very enthusiastic across the board:
Having driven the Tesla Model S on the neighborhood roads back-to-back not only against most of the other electric cars in the market today, but also comparing it against other premium cars such as Rolls Royce Corniche, I came to this startling conclusion: The Tesla Model S is so superior that it seems that it's just a matter of time until all the other car companies will have to file bankruptcy.
 Production rates are increasing, and while they may not hit the year end target of 5000, it really doesn't matter in the long run as long as they can eventually achieve a rate to allow the planned 20,000 cars next year.  There is still time to hit the 5K mark this year, and I wouldn't bet against them doing it.  They seem to have gotten fairly good at doing what supposedly can't be done, I expect them to continue.  Now I'm just looking forward to the planned announcement of the supercharger network that is supposed to entail more than what people are expecting.  Should be interesting.