Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video by Munro Live
Sandy Munro has continued the teardown of a Tesla Model S Plaid, and it has been revealed that not everything is impressive on the American sedan. In the case of the doors, Sandy Munro is not impressed but disappointed, and he even went further to throw some rocks at Ford.
Back in the 1980s, Sandy Munro was doing the same job he is doing today, analyzing how vehicles are assembled, designed, and built. As Sandy recalls, he was tasked by Ford to improve the company's F-150, and he proposed a design that involved modular door panels.
Despite the fact that Sandy presented an alternative that would improve quality, as well as bring cost savings, the Blue Oval chose to go against his solution at the time, as Munro noted in his video. It is unclear why the Dearborn-based brand made such a decision at the time, but it appears that the stick-built door was the preferred solution.
Well, here is the kicker: Tesla builds both modular doors and stick-built doors. The former is found on the Model Y, and can probably be found on the Model 3 as well, since the two share platforms.
Meanwhile, the Model S is an older design, even in Plaid form, and it comes with a stick-build door. Sandy explains the complexity of these doors in the video, but your takeaway from it should be the fact that it is a decision made by the manufacturer when designing the vehicle.
Moreover, Sandy claims that the modular system provides an increase in quality, reduces complexity during assembly, and only requires a single station to install it. The level of skill or physical force required from the assembly worker tasked with fitting is also lower than with a conventional door.
With that in mind, most of our cars come with a stick-built design. While Sandy has not specified what are the cost differences here, we think that there is a good chance that the mode complicated design is cheaper to manufacture than the modular type, which means that the latter is only chosen when the conventional, stick-built-type is not feasible.
On a more positive note, Sandy also checked out the way that the seats of the Model S Plaid are designed, and he has suggestions for Tesla engineers, as well as his input on what can be done to improve comfort for the rear seats.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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