Despite all the noise Tesla makes about their &quot;advanced manufacturing capabilities&quot;, their productivity is very low by auto company standards:<p>Tesla: 12,000 employees, about 50,000 cars&#x2F;year, 0.24 man years per car.<p>Ford: 181,000 employees, 3,230,000 cars&#x2F;year, 0.06 man years&#x2F;car.<p>Tesla is heavily subsidized by government, sells an expensive car, makes very few models, and still loses about $4000 per car.  Something is wrong there. Their head count is way too high.