An automotive consultant who has been critical of the fit and finish of Tesla’s Model 3 is now praising the EV maker’s sedan as a “symphony of engineering” and the most profitable electric vehicle on the market.
Sandy Munro, the president of Michigan-based automotive consultant Munro & Associates, finished the teardown and analysis of the Tesla Model 3, and came away impressed.
At first, “I thought this was one of the worst fit and finishes I’ve seen in decades,” Munro told the Autoline television show this week.
After Munro and his team tore down the Model 3, the early critic now said that the electronics at Tesla are a “symphony of engineering” and that “they did a really good systems integration job.”
In April, Munro was praising the battery pack of Model 3, but lamented the poor fit and finish and believed that the vehicle was costly and heavy to build.
Now, after the total teardown, Munro thinks that the electronics “density is out of this world, the layouts are wonderful.”
“This is like a symphony of engineering,” Munro told the Autoline show.
Asked about the big takeaway conclusion from the teardown of the Model 3, Munro said:
“The Model 3 is profitable, so I have to eat crow. I didn’t think it was going to happen this way, but the Model 3 is profitable.”
Model 3 is “over 30 percent profitable,” he added.
“No electric car is getting 30 percent net, nobody.”
Tesla is banking on Model 3 production ramp-up and sales to turn in its first ever profit, while may analysts continue to doubt that the EV maker can become profitable as it burns a lot of cash in the process.
Earlier this month, Tesla said that it had actually reached the 5,000-a-week Model 3 production goal that many Wall Street analysts had doubted it would. Tesla said that it had reached its 5,000-per-week Model 3 production rate by the end of June. In the last seven days of the second quarter, Tesla produced 5,031 Model 3s and 1,913 Model S and X vehicles. The EV maker also expects to increase its Model 3 production rate to 6,000 Model 3s per week by late August.
