Tesla Model 3 Built Like A 1990s Kia, Says Engineering Firm
When we’re talking about Tesla these days, it tends to be something to do with the Model 3’s continued ‘production hell’. Production line bottlenecks have been well reported, and we all know by now that the Californian firm is way off its original build targets.
Today however, we’re looking at a different issue: the quality of the few Model 3s that Tesla has actually managed to build thus far. Initial reports from many haven’t exactly been glowing in this regard (who can forget that decidedly off door alignment seen on a Model 3 in Doug DeMuro’s in-depth look), but this particular look at the all-electric BMW 3-series rival is by far the most damning.
It comes from Sandy Munroe of Munro & Associates, a company specialising in the tear down of cars for competitive benchmarking studies. And Munroe does not like what he sees.
The company hasn’t even started the tear down yet, but already - as you’ll see in the video at the top of the page - Munroe has concerns about what might happen following an accident. The cut-off for the electrical system isn’t the easiest to get to, and the rear doors don’t have an emergency manual release, so in the event of a power failure, anyone back there would need to escape through the front doors.
He’s particularly bemused by an extra piece of fabric that’s seemingly been glued onto to one of the front doors to help it seal better, and isn’t at all impressed by the shut-lines, which aren’t just bad - they’re also inconsistent.
Anything else? Well, the door handles are deemed to be poorly designed, the tailgate isn’t the easiest to shut, and…we could go on for a while. And remember - this is just from an initial look at the car.
Munroe’s conclusion? “I don’t understand how it got to this point,” he said, adding, “These are flaws that we’d see on a Kia in the 90s.” Ouch.
Via Jalopnik
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Tesls is shit, YAY!
Lets talk about Mercedes Benz built quality. For example s class is less reliable than the Tesla Model S.
I “Musk” say, what a shocking calamity!
These are absolutely woeful design decisions. No manual release for the rear doors and needing jump leads for the bonnet release are the biggest grievances. This is supposed to be a luxury car, and to be perfectly honest, my Kia Optima (ironically) is far better screwed together than this thing. At least I have consistent panel gaps.
What happened to the Mustang??
LOL
Everyone here is bitching about the tesla, yet as I scroll down in other news, BMWs M3 can’t even pass emissions, Porsche is killing off the manual GT3 and the Alpine A110 has almost killed someone of its own accord. A small startup company’s glued on trim doesn’t seem so bad now does it?
If everyone who complained about lack of manual actually bought a manual car (or were capable of buying the car in the first place) then it’d have a manual.
Why im not surprised? 😁
I rather buy a more expensive mercedes or Bmw for actual build Quality rather than neck breaking acceleration
I’m not too surprised. Elon Musk doesn’t have to make a quality product, because he knows that he’s clever enough to market Tesla in such a way that people will continue to invest in it regardless…
I’d rather buy a cheaper dodge charger hellcat for both the neckbraking acceleration and the build quality.
Now we know how to steal stuff out of the Tesla Model 3 front trunk. just bring your 12V battery :D
I look forward to seeing the results when the car is fully dismantled
Tesla really isn’t helping the crappy american car stereotype. I like most american cars, but god we need to step our game up.
True story