In his latest interview, engineer, analyst, and vehicle teardown wizard Sandy Munro discusses the future of the automotive industry and the role of Tesla in detail. Munro opened up about which companies he thinks can rival Tesla in the future and why most of them are still on the wrong path towards their ultimate doom.
I am going to jot down the major points he made on the show, you can directly jump to the video below by clicking here.
Elon Musk lies a lot
According to Sandy Munro, the CEO of one of the largest S&P 500 companies, Mr. Elon Musk “lies a lot” — he is actually saying that Musk has developed a habit of understating and over-delivering.
Elon Musk does not fully disclose his next move, he just gives a hint and hides the most important stuff, just like the genius he is.
For example, the Tesla Battery Day was hyped for a long time but no one exactly knew what the new 4680 cells looked like or even what the form factor or dimensions were, Chemistry is still a mystery. The presentation showing a 56% cost reduction in batteries was also unprecedented.
Sandy Munro says the new Tesla 2170 battery cells have almost eliminated cobalt and added more nickel, that’s the reason Musk was looking for nickel mines a while ago.
Comparing Musk to the rest of the auto industry executives, he said the general public knows almost none of them, the only exception would be Volkswagen Chairman Herbert Diess. The reason behind this hiding is that they’re fearful of not being able to hit the bar which is set so high by Elon Musk.
QuantumScape, solid-state batteries, and Volkswagen
Munro thinks if there would be any rival of Tesla’s 4680 lithium-ion battery in the next two years, it would be QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal batteries. According to his knowledge, since Volkswagen has a big share in Bill Gates-backed QuantumScape, VW will be the only company rivaling Tesla in the EV marketplace in the near-term future.
Sandy Munro is of the view that still it would take a lot of finessing to do with the solid-state batteries, “it will not be an easy trick,” he says.
Anybody who isn’t up to their necks into EVs is pretty much toast!
Sandy Munro
Auto Industry analysts are deprecated
“I don’t take analysts seriously,” expresses Sandy Munro in his interview video. He even said that mainstream media is also skipping automotive analysts and taking the viewpoints of experts like him, it’s the new norm.
According to Sandy Munro’s analysis, 2021 is going to be a decisive year for the auto industry as Rivian’s R1T Pickup Truck and R1S SUV plus the Tesla Cybertruck deliveries will begin. It’s going to be hard on the traditional automotive companies.
Rivian R1T vs. Hummer EV
For his next teardown projects, Sandy Munro has already selected the Cybertruck but to meet the budget requirements, his company had to choose between the Rivian R1T and Hummer EV.
Munro & Munro Associates ran a poll online and asked their 100k+ subscribers what they should do. According to Munro, 97% of the audience wanted to see the Rivian R1T teardown to its last screw. Rivian wins, Hummer EV loses — game over GMC.
Giga Casting is the future of auto manufacturing
For the past 10 years, Sandy Munro has been showing auto executives the giant underbody die casts sitting at his factory. “I think you’ve lost your mind,” this is the usual reply he got from them for all those years.
Now Tesla Model Y at the Gigafactory Shanghai, Fremont Factory are made with single-piece front and rear Giga Castings. Tesla went ahead of the curve too early. According to Munro, this innovation alone will get rid of 1/3 of the body shop at Tesla. Giga Berlin is set to start production with 8 Giga Casting machines next year.
