His company's clients are mainly VC companies and hedge funds. I gather his team do car tear downs and quality inspections but also collect survey data. Presumably his GF3 visits were accompanying a large Tesla shareholder on their site visit.
I'd guess he runs an in depth due diligence research house/reverse engineering firm, focussed on engineering heavy companies. He says he is a "scientist with a doctorate in nuclear engineering as well as a doctorate in aerospace engineering from highly reputable organizations"
I'll caveat that there is nothing to confirm all his comments are not just made up, but he seems legitimate to me.
Some interesting comments on Tesla:
". I have one small team that specializes in cosmetic and visual/appearance concerns."
"my firm largely works for investors. Mainly hedge funds and VC firms. So much of the specifics is actually their IP.
I have obtained approval to talk in general terms from 3 of my clients, but I'm under NDA's for most stuff.
We collect all kinds of automotive consumer data via surveys and thru organizations we collaborate with."
"Don't think there has been a single Model 3 fire caused by the car in ANY way, including crashes. S & X vehicles likely to get the same pack modifications. Fire will soon be 10x-50x less likely that other vehicles IMHO."
"Have it on good authority that the refresh will have the Model 3 pack design which is nearly fireproof. Get an S then if you are worried. Pack version "E" is on the updated S. We are waiting on a donor to tear down - the E pack may be updated already. If so, the fire risk is ~ 0."
"I could be wrong here, but it's been suggested to me by "people close" that Tesla is wanting to shed the additional cost of having a cell supplier. The pack is the largest cost part of the car. Panasonic has a markup. Make your own cells, save whatever profit Pana was charging."
"I post this because my company does extensive survey work. While I agree with your assessment of complaints, and our own survey data reflects this, Tesla has some kind of magic working. Customers generally own more than one Tesla, or replace their Tesla with another one. So while our survey data and others confirms the complaint levels, it definitely doesn't correlate with customer loyal or satisfaction in any notable way. We don't see this very often, so it's definitely noteworthy. Most companies would kill for this TBH."
"Some points I would differ on would be: 1) Panasonic vs Tesla isn't unhealthy. Panasonic will have plenty of buyers of their cells regardless. 2) Tesla has fairly huge resources for cell tech via SpaceX."
"I know quite a few materials engineers, chemistry experts and more at SpaceX. Their teams of metallugists and many other disciplines are among the best in the world and highly inventive and creative. I have people older than me that say they are the best they've EVER seen."
"Tesla's cell tech is better than most, but I probably wouldn't call it a moat. Their advantage is more in the management systems and control logic, and the greatest advantage is in their total system integration of everything."
"I'll say my company is NOT located "conveniently" and dozens of my employees own Teslas."
"Has the chance to visit both Fremont and China/Shanghai recently. Much of Munro's suggestions have already been incorporated at Fremont. China factory is significantly different but won't suffer the same issues Fremont did first pass. But China may surface a lot of new ones..."
"We have had dozens of people inspect hundreds of Model 3's in the wild. Our data matches Lutz's observation. Gaps and paint are now def world class. Early ones were awful."
Some other auto industry comments:
"Having had a close look at i3 manufacturing, BMW did an absolutely horrific job with many aspects of the i3 program. The design wasn't appropriate, the line was far too costly and complex, but the worst was they made a car no one wanted. BMW's fail was their own here."
"Dealers actually spend the bulk of the advertising costs - depending on mfg some 4 to 6%. While the OEM isnt losing this, it does get passed to customers and does cut into margins one way or another. The OEM kicks in another 2-4% for an overhead of 6 to 10%."
"Having a supply chain is part of the problem. Existing carmakers are probably going to have to shed their suppliers to compete on price. Cars cost more than necessary because there are 4 to 8 layers of suppliers all adding their own markups..."
"The Germams will struggle with speed. Yes they can manufacture well. But I am extremely skeptical of their ability to pivot quickly. And by quickly I literally mean pivot over 4 to 10 yr timeframes."
