Tesla Model 3: All that glitters is not gold
Everybody has heard of Tesla by now. Their flagship car the Tesla Model S broke multiple records and amazed millions of people with its all-electric long range sedan. In 2013 Tesla Model S became the first electric car to top monthly sales.
Also Read: Future of Electric Cars in Pakistan
In 2016 Tesla unveiled the Model 3, a smaller and more affordable ($35000) Model S. Tesla reported that they had taken 325,000 reservations in a couple of months. The Model 3 comes with a range of 350Km and does 0-100 km/h in 5.6 seconds while the long-range version can do 500 km with a 0-100 time of 5.1 seconds. Allegedly, the car can do 0 to 100 much faster than what Tesla advertises.
That’s pretty impressive on paper but is it really an engineering marvel or not?
YouTube is filled with reviews regarding the Tesla 3 and the issues people are facing with their cars.
Recently an engineering firm which specialises in tearing down cars for benchmarking discovered some very unusual aberrations. They were certainly not impressed with what they found and were baffled by the issues found in the car.
Here are some of the assembly issues highlighted by the CEO,
- Extra sealing material for driver side windows glued on permanently
- Noticeable gaps in exterior panels (the size of a thumb in some areas)
- Pretty difficult to cut power in case of an accident (hood can’t be opened easily if the LCD control panel gets damaged in an accident)
- Driver window moves vigorously inside the door panel on closing the door.
- Slightly off alignment on front fenders
- Misaligned chrome trims on doors
- Flimsy door seals
The company that did the benchmarking studies is Sandy Munroe of Munro & Associates, Inc., a little harsh but this is what their CEO had to say:
“I don’t understand how it got to this point. These are flaws that we’d see on a Kia in the 90’s”
Let us know what you think about the assessment in the comments section below.