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Is it "body in white" or "body and white"? The former seems more logical, while the latter is all bold and red.
digitaltim
Sig737 VIN628
NigelM
Recovering Member
Curious, we're you ever quoted 8/15 or was that your own estimate? Also, are you S180 or SSL180? I have Sig Special #183 and delivery date has always been September since the start of the configure process.
smorgasbord
Active Member
Sig 1013 in first week of Nov matches with R270 being told Nov (not yet finalized).
Which means Tesla has less than 2 months to make 3700 cars. If their final rate is 100/day (500/week), they better be at that by end of Sigs if they want to make/deliver 500 cars in 2012.
Which means Tesla has less than 2 months to make 3700 cars. If their final rate is 100/day (500/week), they better be at that by end of Sigs if they want to make/deliver 500 cars in 2012.
One thing that hasn't been brought up yet is the possibility that Tesla will produce cars and hold them in their factory for a few weeks before shipping them out. For QC reasons, or to compare cars between other cars. It is hard to determine if you are producing identical units when you only make a couple a day.
They could make 500 signatures and then start shipping the first ones out.
I am not saying I believe this but I have worked for manufacturers that have done exactly this. You make a whole bunch of product and hold it "just in case" I could see Tesla ramping up production, and trickeling deliveries while they build up a temporary inventory. If any of the first 10-100 people find a problem they can fix cars without sending out a ranger.
They could make 500 signatures and then start shipping the first ones out.
I am not saying I believe this but I have worked for manufacturers that have done exactly this. You make a whole bunch of product and hold it "just in case" I could see Tesla ramping up production, and trickeling deliveries while they build up a temporary inventory. If any of the first 10-100 people find a problem they can fix cars without sending out a ranger.
Nigel brought up this possibility.
We're talking about most cars worth in excess of $80,000. It doesn't make financial sense to deliberately build large inventories. I think that logistics may require some batching, but I doubt the resulting completed inventories will be more than a few dozen at any time.
Larry
I meant they intend to ship all 5000 them before the end of the year. Instead of shipping them as they make them the first 500-1000 get stored and they release a very small amount. Once they feel those cars are not showing defects they ship their backlog.
Basically they can decouple their production from shipping. And the early shipping rates may not reflect their current production rates.
Nigel was saying they may be able to ramp at the end and produce, but not ship, all 5000 cars. I am saying they may be ramping faster than early deliveries indicate. I know this happens in manufacturing. I don't necessarily think Tesla will do this, as it would tie up a lot of money in inventory. But it does happen with lower cost manufactured goods. It is extremely valuable to ramp up production early to prove your equipment can do it. Produce a bunch of units to make sure the full rate is not causing problems, then start to run the line to meet your production goals.
I admittedly don't have a manufacturing background, but it just seems logical to me that if there are quality issues at low volumes there is no point in ramping up production and creating expensive inventories until the issues have been resolved. These changing delivery dates despite extremely low volumes suggests there may be concerns about quality.
Larry
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