"Workers and Injured Only" Tesla was exposed to 90% failure rate of quality inspection

According to foreign media reports, after the Tesla Model S sedan and the Model X crossover started production at the factory assembly line in Fremont, California, nine current employees and former employees told Reuters that the electric cars produced A quality inspection and repair procedure is required.

Workers revealed that Tesla generally requires that vehicles undergo a repair process before they leave the factory. In this procedure, 90% of the Model S and Model X will be checked after the next production line. Related personnel revealed this. The data comes from October data from Tesla's internal tracking system. Some of them revealed that such phenomena can be traced back to 2012 at the earliest.

Tesla said that the quality control system is usually very strict, in order to mark and resolve minor unqualified production. Tesla also declined to disclose to Reuters the failure rate of the previous inspection process. Toyota's globally-produced car companies have an error detection rate of less than 10%. Quality assurance at the initial assembly stage is crucial because after-sale repair procedures are both time consuming and costly.

A former Tesla supervisor stated: "Tesla is investing too much in the inspection process and that's why it spends so much money." Tesla said that most of the problems found after assembly are Smaller, can be resolved in minutes.

Tesla is enthusiastic about consumers with stylish design, clean technology and superior acceleration. The Consumer Reports survey found that about 91% of Tesla consumers are willing to buy back again. However, Consumer Reports and JD Power have always criticized Tesla's quality issues, such as gaps in door handles and body panels. Bernstein analyst AM Sacconaghi Jr. test-drived the all-new Model 3 sedan earlier this month, claiming that the car's comfort and overall design were not satisfactory. Tesla’s consumers have also repeatedly complained about problems such as noise in cars, software loopholes, and insufficient bonding of boards.

According to experts in the automotive industry, Tesla's survival depends mainly on mass production of high-quality models, and the introduction of the Model 3, the first mass consumer model, is also in production, with an initial price of $35,000.

Tesla's profit has never been profitable, and it will “burn” $1 billion every quarter, which is difficult to sustain without free cash and sales growth. Consumers are not tolerant of potential faults. of.

Morningstar analyst David Whiston said earlier this month: "We have never suspected Tesla's production capacity, but it is different between launching a product and achieving volume production perfectly, and Tesla is achieving perfect volume production. What's done is not perfect."

Musk once vowed that Tesla would become the best car company in the world with a new, highly automated assembly line and the simply designed Model 3 model. However, the production bottleneck also caused the Model 3 to be difficult to deliver.

Problems continue to emerge

Workers said that it is normal for new product launches to fail, but the long-term failure of Tesla Models S and X also indicates that Tesla has not yet mastered basic production.

The minor faults in the inspection after the new car goes offline include indentations, scratches, etc. The major problems include seat malfunction. The fault can be repaired simply and immediately. In the face of speculation, an outdoor parking lot in Tesla will often have a backlog of new cars waiting to be repaired, sometimes exceeding 2,000 vehicles. Tesla denied this.

Reuters conducted interviews with nine Tesla workers and former employees, including former senior management personnel, and was familiar with assembly, quality control, and Model S and Model X repairs. Since the confidentiality agreement was signed, the interviewee requested anonymity. Relevant personnel also showed Reuters data on relevant quality inspection procedures, but Reuters could not confirm it alone. The failures that have occurred include doors that are not closed, cut corners, parts are missing, items are loose, and water leaks. Another former supervisor revealed that Tesla has been producing Model S since 2012. Why is there still a problem of water leakage?

Tesla: The quality inspection process is very strict

Tesla dismissed the employee's description. A spokesperson stated that the rigorous testing procedures required that all new cars pass more than 500 inspection and testing procedures. The remanufacturing of the new car after the release of the new line reflects the company’s commitment to provide consumers with high quality products.

Workers who had worked on the Model S and Model X production lines have revealed that even if a problem arises, the production line must be guaranteed to flow. According to some sources, a large number of parts will be incomplete after the car goes offline, including the occurrence of a windshield and missing bumper. It was not in the hands of the workers and could not be installed in time. Workers also understand that they will be repaired later.

After the new car goes offline, quality inspectors find that the internal tracking system has detected more faults than the workers reported. At the time of calibration, each team did not use the same standard, resulting in a gap in size. Tesla also denied any inconsistency in quality control.

Employees revealed that some workers also understood the challenges faced by Musk in shortening the design process for the release of new cars in the industry, and therefore skipped some of the pre-production testing procedures and then repaired them in a hurry. This also led to the The failure rate is greatly increased.