Quote:
Originally Posted by cabasse
i thought he hit is 5k/week mark. that's a lot of teslas. the new and current beef is that he "can't build the cheap one, it'll lose money."
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There is almost no profit in building small and mid-sized cars, even in the huge volume that GM, Ford, Toyota, etc., build them. The big automakers only make about $1,000 per unit on small cars whereas they usually make $4,000+ per full-sized car, crossover, SUV, or truck.
The labor for parts, warehousing said parts, storing/transporting finished vehicles, and labor for final assembly of a vehicle is roughly the same no matter how large the vehicle is. But for decades the market has shown a willingness to massively overpay for physically large vehicles.
That's why GM, Ford, and Chrysler can still build their pickup trucks and SUV's in the United States whereas compact cars like the Ford Focus/Fiesta and Chevy Cruze are assembled in Mexico or elsewhere.
Tesla made a big and possibly fatal mistake by trying to get into small/midsized cars. Not only did they willingly wade into the least-profitable segment of the auto market, they're building them in the United States and so have to pay much higher wages.
Above that, Tesla is poised to exhaust its Federal tax credits before any other automaker. So if they ever actually manufacture a $35,000 Model 3, that car will cost more like $45,000 while the Chevy Bolt, etc., still sell for $35,000.