Sandy Munro, a teardown specialist and auto industry veteran, is releasing the results of a study he conducted with battery expert Mark Ellis comparing the motors inside four electric vehicles, one of which was a Tesla Model 3. Despite analyzing the vehicle for a long time, the auto expert states that there are still mysteries that he is yet to uncover on the electric sedan.
“The Tesla has a lot of stuff hidden. The Tesla is a big mystery. It’s not obvious sometimes what clever things they’ve done, ” he commented about the California-based car maker’s motor in a recent interview summarized by Industry Week. “There’s mysteries every day. We thought we were clever, but we’re not that clever.”
One of the clever features Munro and Ellis discovered in their Model 3 teardown was the disconnect device for the high voltage. “It’s not really a fuse…It’s like a little explosion. If the car rolls over, they have a little disconnect that blows up, [cutting] all the power to everything and that way you don’t have an electric nightmare,” he revealed. Also, the inner magnets of the Model 3 motor were found to be under a lot of stress, which is not something other manufacturers have learned to do in high volume production. “We’ve talked to lots of magnet manufacturers, but this might be another one of these made-in-Tesla kind of deals. They make a lot of stuff in-house,” Munro guessed.
Another innovation that impressed the teardown team was how advanced the inverter/convertor device was that provides power to the motor, particularly in the use of silicon carbide on the devices’ integrated circuits. “It creates a lot less heat and is a lot faster than the Chevy and BMW,” Ellis added to the discussion. “Silicon carbide is the latest and greatest and Tesla so far is the only vehicle out there with it.” Munro and Ellis further noted the high level of tech Tesla’s motor contained, all while being considerably smaller than the competition.
The study will be released in a few weeks and also includes detailed information about the motors inside the Chevy Bolt, BMW i3, and Jaguar I-Pace. Munro had very positive things to say about Tesla’s technology, but the electric vehicles produced by industry giants did not receive quite the same accolades. “It looks like the other guys just went around and glued together whatever they could find off the shelf,” Munro jabbed at Tesla’s competition.
The BMW i3 was hit particularly hard and cited as the heaviest, most expensive, and very inefficient overall. “It’s not designed for… I don’t know what it’s designed for, really,” Munro swiped in the interview. “While everything on Tesla is…very, very efficient engineering.” Munro still isn’t sold on the Model 3 body, though, and takes issue with the complexity of the process it takes to manufacture it thanks to the number of parts, materials, and fastenings involved.
Munro has a history of strong opinions on Tesla’s car intended for the mass market. After completing an initial teardown of a 2017 version of the vehicle, he infamously commented that the car’s panel gaps could be seen “from Mars” among other very critical remarks about the way the car was manufactured. Tesla eventually issued a statement in response to the criticisms, indicating that significant improvements had been made to its Model 3 manufacturing process which would render moot many of the issues identified.
Once the Model 3 teardown was complete, Munro later admitted to eating “a lot of crow” in response to the technology installed and implemented throughout the car. He praised the Model 3 battery pack and the way it handles on the road, in particular, and also estimated Tesla was turning a 30% profit on the vehicle. Munro ultimately concluded that everything from the car’s suspension and down was perfect, but everything about its bodywork was questionable.
While the study Sandy Munro and Mark Ellis have conducted has not yet been released, from the sounds of it, crow seems to have still been on the menu for Tesla’s inner workings while old criticisms still stand about its outer packaging.
Elon Musk
Tesla Optimus’ pilot line will already have an incredible annual output
And this would just be the beginning. In the future, Musk mused that Optimus’ production could literally be out of this world.
During the 2025 Tesla Annual Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk provided a teaser of the company’s targets for Optimus’s annual production. As per the CEO, Optimus’ pilot line will be capable of producing up to one million units annually.
And this would just be the beginning. In the future, Musk mused that Optimus’ production could literally be out of this world.
Musk targets world’s fastest production ramp for Optimus robots
Tesla’s first Optimus line will be built in Fremont, California, and is projected to produce around one million robots per year. Other facilities like Gigafactory Texas could scale Optimus production to 10 million units annually. Musk even joked that a 100-million-unit line might one day be built “on Mars.” With Optimus, Musk stated that Tesla is looking to achieve a historic production ramp.
“So we’re going to launch on the fastest production ramp of any product of any large complex manufactured product ever, starting with building a one million unit production line in Fremont. And that’s Line One. And then a 10-million-unit-per-year production line here (at Giga Texas). I don’t know where we’re going to put the one hundred million unit production line, maybe on Mars. But I think it’s going to literally get to one hundred million a year, maybe even a billion a year,” Musk said.
Optimus and sustainable abundance
Tesla’s Master Plan Part IV is all about sustainable abundance, and Musk highlighted that the humanoid robot will play a huge role in his vision for the future. He noted that Optimus’ mass production could redefine economic and social systems worldwide and open up premium services for everyone across the globe.
“People often talk about eliminating poverty or giving everyone amazing medical care. There’s only one way to do that, and that’s with the Optimus robot,” Musk said. “With humanoid robots, you can actually give everyone amazing medical care. In terms of Optimus will be more precise. Optimus will ultimately be better than the best human surgeon with a level of precision that is beyond human… People always talked about eliminating poverty, but actually, Optimus will actually eliminate poverty,” Musk said.
Ford is considering a drastic move with its F-150 Lightning, which was the best-selling EV pickup on the market last quarter, beating out Tesla’s Cybertruck.
Ford has had a tumultuous entrance into its more expanded electric vehicle strategy over the past several years. At one point, the company was widely considered to be the most invested legacy automaker in the transition to electrification, but as the company has seen some real backtracking in terms of its sales and demand, it is cooling down its commitment.
At the end of Q3, it seemed to already be considering making some moves to cool off its EV ambitions, especially as the $7,500 EV tax credit was removed and it appeared that consumers would be less attracted to its vehicles without this sizeable discount.
Now, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Ford is considering scrapping the F-150 Lightning altogether, as one employee said “the demand is just not there.”
Despite it being the best-selling EV pickup in the U.S. last quarter, the sales simply do not match up with the pricing, and financially, it is not the time to try to dive further into a project that is not making a profit. Ford has been dwindling in its commitment to EVs over the past several quarters, and its profits are reflecting a slowing interest in its electric vehicles.
Simply put, Ford’s combustion engine lineup of pickups in the F-Series is, by far, the best-selling division of trucks globally. Ford brought an awesome product forth with the Lightning, a mirror of the gas-powered F-Series that had a variety of trim levels for whatever the truck would be used for by the consumer.
However, the demand and sales have caused Ford to take a loss on its electric truck: figures from early last year indicated it was losing between $100,000 and $132,000 per vehicle.
It is not an official announcement, as Ford has not publicly said anything regarding its plans for the Lightning at this time.
Tesla has tentatively scheduled its unveiling event for the Roadster’s next-generation iteration, and you will not believe the date the company picked for it.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the 2025 Annual Shareholders Meeting that the company is aiming for an April 1 demo event.
Yes, April Fools’ Day.
🚨 Tesla’s unveiling event for the Roadster Gen 2 is scheduled for April 1, 2026.
Yes, April Fools’ Day. pic.twitter.com/sw09GUYFPV
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
Tesla originally aimed for its “most epic demo” to take place at the end of this year. However, the writing on the wall as 2025 winds down seemed to indicate the company was not quite ready to show off everything it plans to implement into the Roadster.
Its capabilities have been teased quite heavily throughout most of the year, but the biggest hints came last week when Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.
He said:
“Whether it’s good or bad, it will be unforgettable. My friend Peter Thiel once reflected that the future was supposed to have flying cars, but we don’t have flying cars. I think if Peter wants a flying car, he should be able to buy one…I think it has a shot at being the most memorable product unveil ever. [It will be unveiled] hopefully before the end of the year. You know, we need to make sure that it works. This is some crazy technology in this car. Let’s just put it this way: if you took all the James Bond cars and combined them, it’s crazier than that.”
The Roadster has been somewhat of a letdown, at least in its newest version, thus far. Tesla has routinely delayed the project, putting those who put lofty down payments on the car in a weird limbo, lost at what to do.
One notable pre-orderer cancelled his reservation last week and got in a spat with Musk about it.
Now that there is a definitive date for the Roadster unveiling, Musk and Co. should have a more definitive cutoff date for features and capabilities. Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen said earlier this year that when they showed Musk what they had done with the Roadster, the CEO encouraged them to do even more with it.
This delayed things further.
Musk also said he believes production would begin between 12 and 18 months after the unveiling, putting it out sometime in 2027.
Tesla Optimus’ pilot line will already have an incredible annual output
Ford considers drastic move with F-150 Lightning: ‘The demand is just not there’
Tesla schedules Roadster unveiling event, and you won’t believe when it is
-
News1 week agoTesla Cybercab spotted testing on public roads for the first time
-
Elon Musk6 days agoNeuralink’s first patient could receive an upgrade: Elon Musk
-
News2 weeks agoTesla ‘Mad Max’ gets its first bit of regulatory attention
-
News6 hours agoFord considers drastic move with F-150 Lightning: ‘The demand is just not there’
-
News2 weeks agoTesla shares AI5 chip’s ambitious production roadmap details
-
News2 days agoTesla Giga Berlin hits a sustainability milestone that’s so impressive, it sounds fake
-
Elon Musk4 days agoElon Musk subtly confirms one of Tesla AI8’s uses, and it’s literally out of this world
-
News1 week ago
Neuralink’s first human patient reflects on 21 months with brain implant “Eve”