
Unraveling a Tesla Mystery: Lots of Parked Cars - atombender
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/business/tesla-cars-questions.html
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EADGBE
> "Groups of new vehicles are being detected in unexplained locations across
> the country. Evidence being posted online has raised questions about
> production, logistics, quality and even demand."

This is only news because it's Tesla.

Ford F150's are made near my hometown (Not even the only city making them). So
are many versions of the Transit vans. But we're talking like 24/7 droves of
trucks and vans logistically being organized and shipped out within a 10 mile
area.

Sometimes it requires a staging area.

Sometimes that staging area is a parking lot in a theme park. Sometimes that
staging area is an abandoned field near train tracks. Sometimes that staging
area is an overflow lot for a major casino. Either way you look at it, it's
weird (Like 400 white identical trucks in the middle of nowhere). Right now,
they like to line the trucks up bumper-to-bumper in a weaving-in-and-out
fashion with no real rhyme or reason (I think they're bored). I drove by the
other day around dusk and a few Ford employees had most of the flashers on in
the trucks and were randomly honking the horns.

Most of these vans and trucks have various marks on them and removed beds (Or
cabin-only vans). Some already have wraps and stickers for the corporations
they're waiting to be delivered to.

This is all very normal car manufacturing. Sorry.

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tomatotomato37
I would say the absence of car stockpiles would be more worrying then their
presence, because it shows the manufactor is unable to build up buffers for
logisitcal difficulties and factory retooling. In other words this is decent
news for Tesla because they have the productive capacity to build these
stockpiles in the first place

~~~
EADGBE
> other words this is decent news for Tesla

No news is good news, then. Kinda the point I was making. No one's talking
about Ford in the papers and their weird inventory methods. :)

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woodandsteel
It's no mystery as to why Tesla is having delivery problems. It has been
working on producing cars at a far more rapid rate than before. This is a very
complicated problem with many parts, and Tesla is not able to focus on them
all at once.

So it has wisely decided to set priorities, and worked on production before it
got to deliveries, and as a consequence undelivered cars have piled up. Now
production is going pretty well, and so Musk and his crew are turing their
attention to the delivery problem.

You know, the more Tesla succeeds in producing the Model 3, it seems the more
negative the mainstream media gets in its coverage.

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ecpottinger
How about sales. The online forums are full of people who have just receive
their cars.

What about all the deliveries done on the weekend?

I think someone is leaving out some facts.

~~~
malshe
The point of the article is that, despite all the talk of great demand for M3,
there is a large (potentially unsold) inventory. The article documents an
interesting observation and then provides probable explanations sourced from
many people.

~~~
Technetium_Hat
>M3

Please do not refer to the Tesla model 3 this way, call it the TM3 or just
Model 3 instead. The M3 is a BMW.

~~~
Crosseye_Jack
>M3

Please do not refer to the BMW M3 this way, call it the BMW M3 instead. The M3
is a sub-machine gun. Also BWM Drivers get arsey about these things.

;-)

While I understand your point, in the context of this conversation I don’t see
many people getting confused between the Model 3 or the BWM M3.

If the topic was talking about the shortcomings of BMW’s anti-theft system and
I referred to the M3 I doubt you would get it confused with the M3 sub machine
gun.

Can’t we all just get along and not dictate how others abv stuff?

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justtopost
I would venture to guess they are problem cars. It is more expensive in many
cases to diag a new car than just to roll another off the line and reuse the
known good parts when convenient. This is not ususual for any carmaker. While
I harbor major moral issues with Tsla for their buisness practices, this seems
like nit picking by shorts.

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goelakash
Musk should've probably asked Bezos for Amazon's logistic expertise.

