Interesting video care of Wired. Tesla can’t ask the dealer to handle the usual pre-delivery inspection as they don’t have dealers. So they do it themselves at the factory. This makes total sense. Once the car leaves a production facility fixing a problem is time-consuming and expensive if it has to be returned to the factory. Of course it’s best to build quality into the manufacturing process. Something that the likes of Rover and British Leyland never quite mastered.
Nowadays pre-delivery testing is commonplace, and means the shiny new cars we pick up from dealerships are mostly of higher quality than ever before.
It’s always nice to know just how much care is taken to ensure a car is perfect before you’re handed the key though–and Tesla Motors’ pre-delivery checks are particularly thorough.
The Wired video below shows the steps a Tesla Model S goes through before it’s shipped, the entire inspection happening inside Tesla’s assembly plant in California.
That’s something most automakers can’t do, of course–but Tesla can, with its clean electric cars polluting no more indoors than they do outside.
Paintwork is checked, the body is examined for possible leaks–using 228 water jets and 1,500 gallons of reusable water–before being driven over six different “shake and rattle” surfaces to check for any abnormal cabin noises.
A driving mode check is then carried out, each Model S strapped to a rolling road for 20 miles of various performance, settings and calibration tests–plus a check of the car’s ABS.
Finally, a 101-point check is carried out to ensure every aspect of the car is perfect before delivery.
Altogether, the checks take five hours. It’s amazing to see how much effort goes in to ensuring a car is in top condition before reaching customers, even following many hours of assembly and years of development.
