The quality of Tesla cars is affected any time the company increases production dramatically, this is one of the confessions of the company's CEO, Elon Musk.
In an interview with auto industry analyst Sandy Monroe, on his YouTube channel, Musk said that Tesla was building cars so quickly towards the end of 2020 that they were spoiling paint jobs.
Tesla received a lot of criticism for the quality of its cars, especially after it began to manufacture in relatively large quantities with the "Model 3 ″" and "Model Y" (Model Y).
Musk has been outspoken about quality control issues. "It took us a while to complete the production process. Friends ask me, 'When should I buy a Tesla?' I tell them: Either you buy it in the beginning, or when production reaches a steady state," he said.
"But, during the period of increased production, it is very difficult to be in a position to get everything right, even in the smallest detail," he added.
Monroe asked him why there were paint problems with the new Model 3, while another car produced a month later was better.
Musk replied that Tesla had improved the quality of the paint at the end of last year.
The "Model 3" is now more than 3 years old, and the company has spent most of 2020 trying to achieve an ambitious goal set by Musk to sell 500,000 cars of this class, and it seems that this has led to more quality problems with the paint.
"One of the things that was happening when we were increasing production was that the paint wasn't necessarily dry enough," Musk said.
Monroe is known for his careful examination of all types of cars, and his criticisms of Tesla cars were very popular, as his assessment of the "Model 3" in 2018 was harsh, and he compared its quality to that of the "Kia" (KIA) that appeared in the 1990s.
"I can't imagine how they fired this," Monroe said at the time. "I think your criticism was accurate," Musk responded in his interview.
This is one of the most distinctive interviews Musk has conducted in a long time, and he and Monroe delve into a number of other Tesla topics, such as custom seats, and how the company is trying to avoid quality issues similar to the Model Y and robot assistant.