Can Tesla and Toyota Solve Each Other’s Problems???

Tesla Motors and Toyota are going to work jointly on the development of electric vehicles, parts, production system and engineering support.    Toyota is going to invest $50 million in Tesla stock immediately after their IPO, and Tesla is purchasing the NUMMI plant that Toyota once produced vehicles in as part of a joint venture with General Motors. 

This new partnership offers each company something they are both really really lacking: for Toyota, some really good software engineers that can help them solve the problems they are having in millions of vehicles (but won’t admit is a software problem); and for Tesla, the engineering, purchasing, logistics, process, expertise of a real car company (they know nothing about what is involved in actually making cars – they have never done it). 

Don’t get us wrong, we at Green Car Magazine really like the Tesla roadster, but up until now have questioned Tesla’s ability to become an actual car company.  They have a great engine and drive train design, the body style of the roadster is fabulous, but they had no idea how complicated it is to manufacture quality cars on a consistent basis.  Elon Musk, their CEO ,was of the opinion that the rest of the automotive world were, well basically idiots, and he was going to revolutionize the industry.  He didn’t seem to grasp that developing a piece of software and bringing it to market and developing a car and mass producing it, are two very different things.   The partnership with Toyota indicates that he has finally seen the light on what his and his engineering teams’ shortcomings were.  This is very good news for Tesla.  Toyota will help them learn how to manufacture.  Let’s hope that Toyota goes back to the basics of their production system when working with Tesla, as their famous production system seems to have failed them in the last decade.

This partnership is also a brilliant move for Toyota.  They will have access to Tesla’s technology, something that would have cost them far more to develop in-house.  They will be able to tap into the incredible software knowledge at Tesla as it is clear that Toyota suffers from several programming “bugs” in its vehicles (acceleration in some, stalling in others- the rust problems in the trucks made in Texas, is alas, not a software problem).  They also get to unload the giant NUMMI plant in California, closed when Toyota and GM’s joint venture in that plant (the reason the plant was built) ended. 

We have to admit, we got a chuckle out of several things in the press releases from Tesla regarding these developments but found the following statements “it (NUMMI factory)  is one of the largest, most advanced and cleanest automotive production plants in the world… it is capable of producing half a million vehicles per year or approximately 1 percent of total worldwide car production. The award-winning plant was the birthplace of the vaunted Toyota Production System, a widely copied system that lead to dramatic quality improvements and unprecedented manufacturing flexibility and worker satisfaction”.   Yup, its big but the plant was capable of building that many vehicles with 3 shifts of production and the equipment and tooling belonging to GM and Toyota for the vehicles produced there.    The fact that they brag about how advanced the plant is shows their naivety regarding the rest of the industry around the world.  We don’t know what they are referring to when they say “clean”, is that someone sweeping  the floors or lack of contaminants in their paint process,  because this plant was protested often by the local community due to their emissions.  Lastly, we are pretty sure that the “Toyota production system” was developed in Japan starting after WWII and improved continuously.  As mentioned before, the Toyota production system didn’t keep Toyota out the troubles they are now in, so I think I would tone down the rhetoric about it a little. 
It is clear that both of these companies “egos”  have gotten them into trouble in the past, let’s hope that they can put them aside and learn from each other.  The future will truly be bright for both if they can!  On a side note to Tesla for its future press releases, in this country we call the place where you make cars “plants” not ”factories”.  Please contact us if youwould like to learn other car manufacturing terminology. 

Here is a link to Tesla’s  press releases so you can read them yourself.

NUMMI plant: looks like a lot of car plants- nice flowers though!

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Posted by admin on May 21 2010. Filed under Ev's, Tesla Motors, Toyota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry