...I fail to see why it would be so difficult to do at home. the complication Tesla has are to do with self driving etc.
Um, no. Tesla has a lot more issues than their automated driving.
What many pie in the sky people don't seem to realize--and this probably started with Tucker and hasn't ended yet, is that manufacturing cars is an extremely difficult process, far more difficult than many know or understand. That's why firms like Rivian are having such troubles, despite being given tax breaks, $5B from their Texas factory alone. Or, why Lordstown Motors despite being essentially given a factory, has so far failed to launch. It's just exceedingly difficult to make cars.
Tesla bought the ole NUMMI factory that once made Toyota and GM products, and paid $0.04 on the dollar for the factory. They have, cumulatively since inception, not made money but have a pretty big accumulated deficit. They are not making money from cars, but rather--selling their regulatory credits. $3.3B in sales of these credits in the past five years, far outweighing their income from auto sales. It's like those carbon credits that the big firms trade...it's a big game that they all play because they can.
Once upon a time we didn't have filling stations all over the place, and a long distance journey was challenging. We'll get there with PEVs but we are not there yet. As for all these relatively new startups, as I said, making cars is a very difficult task.
Electrifying a shell of any ICE car in your garage is also not an easy task. For certain there are many who have done it, but like making cars for production, it's not easy.
It's perfect for the engineering minded who like challenges however!!
