In a new interview, Elon Musk agreed with some scathing criticisms of Telsa Inc.’s vehicles and advised against buying Tesla vehicles during a production increase.
The extraordinarily candid interview – even for an extraordinarily candid CEO like Musk – with engineering consultant Sandy Munro aired on Tuesday on YouTube’s “Munro Live” channel and podcast.
Musk had a straight answer when asked about quality control issues: “It took us a while to get the production process right. Friends ask me, ‘When should I buy a Tesla?’ And I: ‘Well, either buy it early, or when production reaches a steady state. During this production ramp, it is very difficult to be in the vertical climb mode and get everything in the small details right. ”
Painting problems also surfaced in December, said Musk, in an attempt to produce as many cars as possible before the end of the year. “One of the things that was happening when we were increasing production was that the paint was not necessarily drying enough,” he said. “So, it’s like, if you go faster … it’s like you just discover these things. Like, if we knew them in advance, we would fix them in advance. “
“Production is hell,” said Musk.
This can be worrisome for future buyers, as Tesla TSLA,
plans to open new factories in Texas and Germany in the coming months and start production of the Cybertruck and Semi big rig by the end of the year.
See too: Apple could build a fully autonomous electric car with Hyundai-Kia: report
During a tough disassembly in 2018, Munro compared the Tesla Model 3 sedan to a shoddy Kia from the 1990s. “I can’t imagine how they launched this,” he said at the time. (Munro later appeared and liked the later versions of Model 3.)
In the interview, Musk said he agreed with Munro. “I thought your criticism was correct,” said Musk.
Musk also admitted that the seats in the early versions of the Model S were terrible, “probably had the worst seat of any car I have ever sat in,” said Musk, noting that he used to call the seat a “rock mushroom”. This spurred a much more comfortable seat design on the Model 3, which Munro praised.
Munro is not the only one to criticize Tesla’s quality. Consumer Reports last year ranked Tesla in second place in a reliability survey. “Only the Model 3 sedan is reliable,” Consumer Reports said in November, classifying the Model S, Model X SUV and compact Y Model SUV as inferior.
This did not hurt Tesla much. The company delivered nearly 500,000 vehicles last year, and analysts expect that number to grow to 800,000 this year. Tesla’s shares have soared more than 480% in the past 12 months.