Maybe not a full-scale brand like Toyota or Honda but a “boutique” sports car manufacturer such as Pagani, TVR, Rimac, etc. Some processes can probably be performed by hand (assembly, welding, painting, etc.) and not need expensive ABB, Fanuc, Dürr, Samsung, Kuka, etc. robots. Also: things like engine, transmission, differential, brakes, steering/suspension, airbags, sensors, lights/reflectors such as Hella 4169 etc. can probably be purchased instead of manufacturing yourself.
Expenses I can think of:
- Establishing the actual corporation, LLC, etc
- Buying/renting a large warehouse
- Sheet metal stamp/press for body parts
- Metal forge for suspension components
- Mold for polypropylene bumpers
- Mold for ABS parts (mirror caps, handles, etc)
- Machine to create all the glass
- Fiberglass station
- Welding equipment
- Paint line, paint booth and oven/curing
- Interior/upholstery department
- Storage aka parts department
- Lifts/dollies/conveyor belts for assembly line
- Crash testing 7 or more cars to legalize them
- Getting the cars federalized/legalized/homologated
- Getting the factory certified, similar as above
- Payroll for managers, marketing, laborers, janitors, maintenance, etc.
- Insurance and lawyers
- Upfront capital for purchasing raw materials
Obviously the starting price would be several million dollars even in a country like Vietnam, India or Mexico - but does anybody have a more specific answer? Can it be done for under $10m? Under $50m? Under $100m? Under $250m?
It would probably be low volume production due the cost effective nature, but the number still interests me.
I was the 309th employee at Tesla back in 2009, I was sub 200 at Lucid Motors. It takes an absolute mountain of cash to start a car company… As a field engineering technician, I assisted at crash test for a many weeks, and the money it takes to do this is insane…That combined with actual production factory setup, stamping tools, dies, etc… Imagine a bonfire of cash fed by a dump truck.
Are we talking hundreds of millions, or hundreds of billions? And either way, how much would that scale down for a smaller operation, something like what Factory Five does?
Genuinely asking and curious, to be clear. The number of “moving parts” in big businesses boggles my brain to the point that I wouldn’t even know where to begin.
You can check financial statements for these recent EV startups to get an idea but Lucid lost $631M in Q3 this year. Their cars cost $470M to make, R&D cost $231M, and business costs were another $190M. They only had $138M in revenue. I think Lucid’s costs are wildly out of scale and probably something fishy is happening behind the scenes but that’s a data point
Speaking of which, I really don’t see how the Cybertruck passes any of that crash testing safety stuff / pedestrian safety.
You might not see it because you have zero fucking clue what you’re talking about lmao.
But the experts who approved its safety rating sure do! Sounds like you should lose some more money shorting Tesla