High Quality, Affordable EVs. Made in China? [View All]

"I clearly remember a very interesting debate I was involved in while at Tesla. The debate was about the manufacturing strategy for the WhiteStar (now known as the Model S) sedan.

The plan had always been to manufacture the car in the US, but the new CEO was challenging our thinking on that plan. Michael Marks had built an extraordinarily successful company in Flextronics by providing outsourced electronics manufacturing services for its customers. Michael was one of the more knowledgeable people in business when it came to high quality manufacturing in China.

The debate took place at the table in a hotel bar in Detroit with several members of the Tesla team. In order to achieve the necessary cost targets for the car, Michael had concluded that the only solution was off-shore manufacturing, preferably China. Alternatively, he said, you could consider near-shore manufacturing in Mexico, but the cost advantages of Chinese manufacturing were so great that it made the most sense. And the kicker: according to Michael, there would be no trade-off in quality or safety."

http://www.darrylsiry.com/2009/03/high-quality-affordable-evs-made-in.html