Tesla Model S rare accident in Los Angeles

This reporter Zhou Kaiping Guangzhou reported

July 4, Tesla Model S rare accident in Los Angeles, speeding Model S hit the lamp post, completely disintegrated in half, then the battery fire burned the body.

A multinational car company Automobile Research Institute of Security experts carefully examine the picture of the accidental body debris, the 21st Century Economic Reporter exclaimed: "Engaged in vehicle safety research for more than 20 years, this completely disintegration of the accident has hardly seen, In particular, the price of more than 600,000 yuan luxury car.

July 7, Tesla official for the first time confirmed the accident. Spokesman Simon Sporr responded that "the tragedy" claimed that the damage to the body was unimaginable. "There are not many Model S cars that have had major accidents, and this will obviously not be the case, so we want to know exactly what happened "

Since the second half of last year, Tesla has had six incidents of fire. In the eyes of an executive at a car company interviewed by a 21st Century Business Herald, Tesla's frequent accidents were not accidental. "From the point of view of the parts supply system, in order to reduce costs, many of the components it uses are not built separately for the Tesla models, but rather are taken directly from components of other brands that have already been mass-produced. The reliability and safety of the product during use is immense. "

As Tesla products are running more and more in the market and longer in time, Tesla engineers are alarmed to find that many parts need improvement and Tesla is getting into a quarrel in more and more trouble. "Improvement means redesigning, characterizing parts that require new molds and a substantial increase in cost."

Parts integration model there are hidden dangers

Automotive companies with proven R & D systems will conduct a wide variety of safety crash tests on the product, including collisions at all angles and speeds, as well as collisions with different objects, including cylindrical objects, to maximize cockpits And the safety of occupants.

According to the above sources, the Tesla car body is directly divided into two parts by the column, which is impossible for automobile manufacturers who have done relevant experiments because the protection of the cockpit in this situation has completely disappeared .

Prior to this, the industry engaged in vehicle safety research has long been foreseen, Tesla safety accidents will continue. "I've been in Tesla for good performance, especially for mute, but we know Tesla's model of parts supply tells us that the safety and reliability of Tesla products are impressive worried."

Tesla Model S suppliers, there are many high-end brake system manufacturers Italian company Brembo, transmission and chassis technology products supplier ZF company, etc., from a single component, most of Tesla's components From large companies in Europe and America.

However, independent development of parts is often because of research and development, mold costs are not large-scale distribution, the price is already large-scale production of parts several times. Tesla in order to reduce costs, the procurement has been applied to other brand models, R & D costs of components has been through the scale of thinner, cheaper parts for assembly. "The reliability of individual components has been verified by the market, but everyone in the automotive industry knows that not all the good parts are stacked together and there is a good product," said the source.

Because many parts are not developed for Tesla products adaptively, the risk of accidents is not manageable over long periods of use, extreme conditions, or serious accidents.

According to statistics, Tesla Model S front bumper assembly purchased from the Canadian company Mosaic Modi (multimatic). Currently the company is expanding in emerging markets, in January this year, plans to invest 25 million US dollars in the Asia Pacific headquarters in Kunshan Development Zone started. Compared with auto parts giants, its investment in China is not large, nor is it as famous as other parts and components companies that invest in China.

Tesla Model S fires less than six times a year, has been estimated by simple data: according to 18650 small battery in the United States the probability of a 0.2PPM recall, then Tesla by a small battery consisting of 7000 battery pack The probability of a fire is 0.14%, which, according to its current sales, causes it to crash almost every month.

The above explained why the actual amount was a little lower than the theoretical accident: Tesla's purchasers are generally rich and have many cars at home. After buying tesla, they are generally only used on special occasions, so use Little time, the accident rate is naturally low.

Another worrying issue is that the Tesla battery pack, which has 7,000 small batteries, means that there are 7,000 controllers that connect these components and the connection point is equivalent to more than 10,000 resistors. "The consistency of these resistors is hard to control, and it is clear that some resistors are small, the frequency of use increases, and damage is easily done; for large resistors, the energy needs to be converted by heat." Tesla has to pay special attention to battery cooling System, which is purchased from Modine, a notoriously American manufacturing company.

Sell ​​more losses more

In the first quarter of fiscal 2013, Tesla achieved its first quarterly profit in 10 years, with a profit of $ 11.2 million and a surge of 83% in operating revenue. The news stimulated the market for new energy vehicles, Tesla then stock prices soared, in the Chinese market has also been stir.

However, the trend of the next development is puzzling. Tesla revenue for the first quarter of last year was 562 million US dollars, to the fourth quarter rose to 615 million US dollars, the first quarter of this year was 621 million US dollars, the chain increased significantly. Contrary to this trend, however, Tesla has entered a loss-making channel since the second quarter of last year, and losses have been increasing.

Tesla said in its earnings report that the company produced a record 7,535 Model S electric vehicles in the first quarter of this year and delivered slightly more than expected 6457 electric vehicles to its customers. Far higher than the average of 5,500 units sold in the previous quarter, an increase of 17%.

But the real problem facing Tesla is that the bigger the sales, the bigger the loss. This also makes it a heterogeneous law of the development of the automobile industry, the scale not only did not dilute the cost, on the contrary more and more difficult.

According to the head of R & D at the above-mentioned automotive company, "We examined the issue of Tesla carefully and found that the reason for this is Tesla's component integration model." Clearly the crux of the loss appears at the product rather than the operating level. "

Tesla engineers hard to tell you that the product is not in the process of using components developed based on the overall development, more and more problems. Tesla had to re-improve the parts, in order to achieve the overall use of automotive products requirements.

Only one solution, parts companies to re-Tesla development products, and then re-development of mold. This has two consequences: First, the two above-mentioned components is the biggest cost, for which Tesla had to return to the starting point, increase costs to take the shortcut to pay; Second, frequent accidents, the market negative information more and more More, the "future car" aura gradually faded.

Tesla last year's sales of only 22,000, this year's target of only 35,000 vehicles, Tesla's cost in the short term can not be diluted to large-scale. Tesla CEO Musk well aware of this, but he had no alternative but to push the scale of the plan: recently announced sales target of 160,000 in Europe, and the construction of the factory. Tesla's long-term global goal is to sell 500,000 vehicles a year.

There are still plenty of questions that Musk is anxious about, and if the reliability and safety of the product are not resolved, the faster the capacity expansion, Tesla may be closer to the grave. "Tesla's parts problem has not yet been fully exposed, Tesla products take some time to improve, during this time, the more sales are still more loss." The above forecast.