The manufacturing analysts who spent 6,600 hours inside a warehouse north of Detroit picking apart a Model 3 have good news and bad news for Tesla Inc. The company now boasts the best technology of any electric car, with potential profit margins that would be the envy of most automakers. But Tesla is squandering that edge with wasted expenses linked to poor design and bloated manufacturing. Sandy Munro, the founder of Munro & Associates, a small company that disassembles new cars piece by piece, concluded that the Model 3 costs about $2,000 more than a similarly priced BMW i3 and may have more cost problems in its assembly plant. Some compact cars and family sedans produced by conventional automakers don't make $2,000 in total profit per vehicle.
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