Let the Tesla silly season begin. In the past 24 hours I have read the most bizarre descriptions of Tesla’s production process in Fremont, and I am now reconsidering my opinion on tents. When I was a sell-side auto analyst, more than 15 years ago, Honda had put in place a Japanese assembly line that produced seven models on the same line. Seven.
Tesla apparently needs an extra assembly line to produce one model, the Model 3, that is not being produced on the same line as the Model S and Model X. So that’s three lines to produce cars at initial quality levels that independent evaluators have judged as poor, at best.