【By Observer Net, Xiong Chaoran】As Chinese electric vehicles have become industry benchmarks, major overseas automakers are learning from their Chinese competitors, with many automakers even "disassembling cars for research." Tesla is no exception, as one of the once leading electric vehicle manufacturers.

According to a report by the U.S. website Business Insider on November 27 local time, Jon McNeill, former global sales and marketing president of Tesla and current member of General Motors' board, revealed that Tesla had disassembled some Chinese electric vehicles, and the experience gained from this can be seen in some of Tesla's most popular models.

"Tesla's ability to learn is like a sponge," said McNeill. During his tenure from 2015 to 2018, the Model 3 was going through its notorious "production hell" period. Now he says that one of the lessons Tesla learned from Chinese electric vehicles is the reuse of components - using core parts of one model in another model, which is evident in both the Model 3 and Model Y.

Regarding this report, Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. However, the report noted that Tesla CEO Musk stated during a 2019 earnings call that the Model Y shares about three-quarters of its components with the Model 3, making it easier to increase production capacity.

Jon McNeill, former global sales and marketing president of Tesla and current member of General Motors' board, photo

According to the report, McNeill did not reveal which Chinese electric vehicles Tesla disassembled during his tenure, but he said that he recently saw in a disassembly with General Motors that BYD, a top Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer, has elevated the technology of component reuse to a new level.

"Chinese engineers are very rigorous in reusing components, saving a lot of costs even for parts under the hood that customers cannot see," he said.

The report states that this is not an exclusive concept of Chinese automakers. The automotive industry has long relied on standardizing components across different models within the same manufacturer, such as steering wheels or turn signal levers.

However, McNeill believes that the unique aspect of BYD and other Chinese automakers is that they extend the degree of component reuse to auxiliary components of the vehicle, from battery packs to heat pumps, and even motors inside the seats, without exception.

"If you disassemble all BYD's cars, you will find that their wiper motors, heat pumps, and pipelines are the same," he said. "In other words, no team designs a specific model separately."

McNeill added that this approach is "very smart," because wiper motors do not change or improve the driving experience.

Moreover, this approach differs from "platform sharing," where multiple models use the same body or underlying structure, which has become a mainstream practice among electric vehicle manufacturers.

McNeill mentioned that the extent of component reuse by Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers is not common in other traditional automakers.

"Toyota uses completely different heat pumps, wiper motors, and seat actuators for each model. In other words, the internal structure of the Corolla is almost entirely different from that of the Camry," he said.

Business Insider pointed out that component reuse is crucial for any automaker hoping to efficiently scale production and reduce costs, especially for emerging automakers.

"Over the past 100 years, only one car company has been able to grow after its founding, and there's a reason for that — it's really hard, and it's extremely difficult, requiring a lot of capital investment," McNeill said, referring to Tesla, and added that American electric vehicle companies like Tesla need to "relentlessly" cut costs.

The report states that electric vehicle manufacturers such as Tesla, BYD, and Rivian are able to reuse components more deeply because they are highly vertically integrated companies, meaning these automakers develop and produce some of their own car components. This control over design and production enables automakers to achieve more standardized components and increase production speed.

After years of increasing losses, Ford, one of the "Big Three" in Detroit, has struggled in the electric vehicle market. Business Insider reported on November 11 local time that Ford's CEO Jim Farley recently revealed in an interview that disassembling Tesla and Chinese new energy vehicle companies has served as a wake-up call for him. He was "shocked" by the advanced nature of his competitors' products, which led him to implement a comprehensive reform of Ford.

According to the report, in 2022, Farley split Ford's electric vehicle business into a new department called "Model E." When talking about this, he admitted that after disassembling Tesla and Chinese competitors' electric vehicles, he experienced an "EV wake-up call."

Farley said, "When we first disassembled a Tesla Model 3 and started disassembling Chinese electric vehicles, I felt very humbled. The situation we found after disassembling was truly shocking."

Previously, Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, pointed out that the popularity of Chinese electric vehicles is due to technological innovation and high-quality standards formed in global market competition, and not supported by subsidies. At the same time, China has fully lifted foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, always opening its doors to global automotive companies, allowing all countries' automakers to fully enjoy the benefits of China's large market.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7577586564616749583/

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