I don't think there are any pictures of the actual equipment, but this is the picture where it shows them charging through the trunk. You can see the silver car behind the black one with the cable running into the trunk.
They haven't "been" through anything, they're - still - going through production issues on a much smaller run of vehicles. And when/if they get that down, that's hardly sufficient preparation for ramping up output 4-5x. That's like saying any skilled home cook could step into a busy restaurant kitchen and start sending out dishes without a hitch - cooking is cooking, right?
Good analogy, but not quite. Home cook stepping into restaurant kitchen was roadster to S. S/X to 3 is more like restaurant chef going to cater a meal for 1200 people. They already know how to do restaurant volume, now they have to simplify so they can crank out catering volume.
None of us can know the amount of factory, supply chain, etc. knowledge and tooling is transferrable to the 3. I would imagine some things transfer directly, some things are reinventions, and many are in-between. We also don't know how much of the re-tooling and reinvention is already done or underway. For all we know, a corner of the factory could have been doing pilot retooling for 12 months or more. I guess many people love speculation, and that's fine, but let's couch it as speculation vs. absolute fact. What needs to be done is pretty factual: development of car, supply chain, manufacturing process at scale, regulatory, etc. How far they are, what they've learned from past efforts, whether they will make it by what date? Speculation. Personally, I speculate that they have learned a ton from S and X, and are further along than we think, but there will be hiccups they don't expect causing 12 +/- 6 month delay to initial shipments, and push volume delivery into 2019. But that's speculation.
Nah. If there are shipments at the S/X volumes going on in 18 and the car is as sexy it appears and competition continues to be nonexistent, no problem. Reservations and interest will continue to rise.
I'm an optimist and I tend to agree with you. They have a ton more experience than before. But I believe the real limiter on pace will be less production, but more service and charging infrastructure. If they are shipping 10x number of cars, they will need huge increase in service, which requires broad hiring, acquisition of space, etc.; and broad expansion of supercharging and destination charging. Sometimes those things are limited by local permitting, labor supply, stuff like that. Easier to control Fremont than the rest of the world. Regardless, I see a big success with a few bumps in the road.
