Elon's interview with AutoblogGreen In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk: Financials, Falcon doors and finding faults in the Model S There's a lot of information here the Tesla faithful may already be familiar with, but there are a few nuggets as well.
In deep w/ Tesla CEO Elon Musk: Financials, Falcon doors & finding faults in Model S Lets see if we can scrape together any more yet-unknown info... http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/07/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-q-and-a/ - - - Updated - - - Here's a taste: "None of this, "J.D. Power found 80 defects" bullshit." - Elon - - - Updated - - - "So I was like, this doesn't seem right, this is off by like three millimeters." - Elon I find these quintessential Elon quotes entertaining, anyone else feel the same? Post your favorites...
Regarding panel fit... 3 millimeters is a lot If he was talking about 0.3 or 0.03 millimeters, then we'd be in Audi/BMW territory IIRC.
i assume (maybe i'm wrong?) that MT article is referring to manufacturing tolerances of parts, not assembly, which is what EM was referring to. an assembly tolerance of .1mm is a bit unrealistic for large moving part machines like cars. but a manu tolerance, for the stamping, cutting, etc, of .1mm is absolutely expected. usually more on the order of mils, .001s of an inch. EM was talking about the fit of the headlamp assembly as it bolts to the chassis. 3mm is a lot of play there, but not off the wall. i like how honest he is, very forthright, which inspires confidence. if he's as picky as we are, or more so, then i feel very good. i knew there was a reason i reserved this car 4 years ago and bought stock at the IPO. this kind of company makes me HAPPY. go tesla.
Isn't it new(ish) news that the Superchargers will be at existing highway rest stops? Here's the quote: I don't know what rest stops he knows that have "pretty good food available", but otherwise that sounds incredibly logical to me.
Too bad for some of you early Sigs; your cars may be "cross-eyed" and/or have miles put on them by Elon :tongue:
Tolerance merely means that the most one car can differ from another is 0.1 mm. That quote does not suggest that the panel gap is less than 0.1 mm.
Note that Musk didn't use the word "tolerance," which has a very specific meaning, and would require both + and - limits. For instance, when he says: "calibrate the entire dimensions of the car within tenths of a millimeter" that is very general, and not only because he doesn't say how many tenths, but also because he doesn't specify whether the difference between the smallest acceptable and the largest acceptable is "tenths of a millimeter," of whether any instance varies from the specification by more than "tenths of a millimeter." The first is twice as restrictive as the second.
This is the first time I have seen Elon be totally off. He describes the LEAF as a 6 kWh charger. No, today it is 3.3 kWh for the AC connection but the DC fast charger is 50 kWh. So with the Supercharger at 90 kWh it is almost twice the power but in either case there is a limit to how much of the battery pack can charged at full power before you ramp down the power to considerably less. That why they talk about the half full charge time (full power) rather than the full charge time.