Elon Musk blames production ramp-up for Tesla quality issues
Tesla CEO outlines steps taken to tackle well-documented variations in EV manufacturer’s build quality
Tesla boss Elon Musk has warned customers against buying one of his firm’s cars when it’s in the early stages of production, because it may be more prone to quality control issues.
Speaking candidly to vehicle engineering consultant Sandy Munro (below), who made headlines in 2018 when he criticised Tesla’s build quality, Musk said: “When people ask me: ‘when should I buy a Tesla?’, I say you should either buy it right at the beginning or when production reaches a steady state.
“During that production ramp-up, it’s super-hard to be in vertical climb mode and get everything right on all the little details. So if you really want things to be dialled, it’s either very early cars or once production has levelled off. That’s when things are going to be best.”
Tesla’s public image has been plagued by build-quality issues in recent years, with customers using social media and other public forums to flag issues including varying widths of panel gaps and water ingress.
Musk has addressed some of the concerns, explaining that speeding up production to meet demand highlights emerging issues: “We did improve our gap and paint quality towards the end of last year – even during the course of December. We were able to focus on it and improve it to a great deal.”