It takes more workers to put together the electronic systems for the Tesla, than it does to set up and install the engine and transmission systems for gasoline vehicles.
Not a surprise.
Tesla delivered 350,000 cars in 2018.
In 2018, the Ford F-Series pickup sold over ONE MILLION.
Toyota Corolla 900k +
CEO Elon Musk said that one of their biggest mistakes with their attempt at highly automating the production of the Model 3 was trying to automate tasks that humans are much better at than robots, like manipulating cables.
In order to facilitate the automation of manipulating cables, Tesla has been reducing the length of wiring harnesses in its vehicles.
Musk said that Model S has about 3 kilometers of wiring harnesses and Tesla brought it down to 1.5 kilometers in length for the Model 3.
But that’s just the beginning. Tesla is working on a whole new wiring architecture for future vehicle platforms and they aim to bring it down to just 100 meters starting with the Model Y.
https://electrek.co/2019/07/22/tesla-revolutionary-wiring-architecture-robots-model-y/
ROBOTS AIN’T CHEAP, AND THE IMPLEMENTATION COSTS EVEN MORE.
Elon Musk is a great miner. He has learned to mine the public treasuries for direct taxpayer subsidies for his products better than most American industrialists ever have. Without them his whole business model is a failure. When they end - the subsidies, he will be out of business.