cwerdna
Well-known member
I will look at it later.johnlocke said:Read Sandy Munro's Teardown Analysis. Note where he talks about the number of parts with Tesla logos. The heating and cooling system is unique to Tesla. Yes, they buy components from other manufacturers. If you build a house do you have to mill all the lumber and forge the nails in order to say you built it yourself? I honestly don't know if Tesla builds their own switches but they do build the computer and all the wiring harnesses. They buy the shocks and tires but build the rest of the suspension system. I suspect the brakes are manufactured by third parties as well. The computer was designed in house by the way as was the vision system.cwerdna said:Source? To what level do you define "components"? Let's set aside seats and batteries. Are you telling me they also manufacture their own glass, semiconductors, switch gear (e.g. switch and buttons), resistors, bearings, headlight and taillight assemblies, bulbs, capacitors, struts for the trunk/hatch and frunk, glass, wiring harnesses, struts, power steering racks (including boots, shafts, motors), AC compressors, heaters, hoses, tubes, tires (definitely not), wheels, fabrics, fasteners (e.g. plastic ones, screws, bolts, nuts, etc.)?johnlocke said:They brought nearly all their component manufacturing in-house to reduce costs and improve quality.
Just because a part has an automaker's logo doesn't mean they manufactured it themselves. There are parts under the hood of my Bolt that say GM on them that likely GM didn't make (e.g. windshield washer reservoir). Some parts have a GM logo + another company's (e.g. Mahle).
On my Leaf, I can see parts with (for example) Nissan and Yazaki logos like high voltage wiring harnesses. The "84 month" 12 volt battery in my Leaf that I received as a warranty replacement only had a Nissan logo and almost certainly was NOT made by Nissan. The Interstate group 51R battery I bought from Costco to replace it looked almost identical in terms of the shape of the covers on top and where all the lines were on the side of the casings. I took pics of both.
Just search https://ir.tesla.com/node/20456/html for supplier and component.
In earlier digging (as I posted at https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/outrageous-5000-repair-bill-after-warranty-expire.163214/page-6#post-3945775 and elsewhere), I discovered the Model S has an AC compressor from HVCC now called Hanon Systems (https://www.hanonsystems.com/En). HVCC was aka Halla Visteon Climate Control.
If you look at the pics at https://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-2019-TESLA-MODEL-X-AIR-CONDITIONING-AC-COMPRESSOR-A-C-1042442-00-D/113672983130, for example, you'll see a Tesla logo, made in Korea and Hanon.
Have you seen charts like these?
https://s3-prod.autonews.com/s3fs-public/CA116489730.PDF from https://www.autonews.com/article/20180730/CUTAWAY/180739953/suppliers-to-the-2018-tesla-model-3
https://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA843311210.PDF for Model S
https://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA10076284.PDF for Model X
As for "build the computer", I highly doubt they manufacture the displays (it's known the S display definitely isn't made in house, I believe it came from Innolux). And, there's no way Tesla manufactures chips. It's WAY too expensive for them to run a fab. Sure, the design of their chips can be solely up to them but they can get the chips themselves fabricated by an outsource fab like TSMC or GlobalFoundries. Many many chip companies are fabless.
As for Tesla making their "all the wiring harnesses", FWIW, I found many references to BizLink being their supplier like the below.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2019/07/08/2003718285 from 2019
https://electrek.co/2016/12/29/tesla-model-3-speed-up-production-kgi-analyst/ from 2016
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2019/11/06/2003725313 from 2019
Tesla simply doesn't have the economies of scale to manufacture a ton of components in house that can be best left to suppliers.