Tesla tore apart Chinese EVs to see what it would find and discovered a game-changing lucrative secret
Published on Feb 28, 2026 at 5:34 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson
Last updated on Feb 27, 2026 at 9:52 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
In a mission to figure out how they were made so cheaply, Tesla once tore apart some Chinese EVs and found a game-changing secret inside.
This admission was made by Jon McNeill, who served as the president of Tesla between 2015 and 2018.
You may recall this was the period when the manufacturer was working on the Model 3 and Model Y.
By looking at the inner workings of a rival EV, they managed to save themselves a lot of money.
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What Tesla learned when it looked inside Chinese EVs
During an interview with Business Insider, McNeill divulged some details about what Chinese EVs had taught Tesla.
Likening his former place of work to a ‘learning sponge’, he said that EVs from China proved to be a huge learning opportunity.
“The Chinese engineers are really disciplined about reusing parts underneath the hood that the customer can’t see, and they save a lot of money that way,” McNeill said.
BYD in particular was highlighted, as its cars use the same windshield wiper motor and heat pumps across all models.
So when it came time for the Model Y and Model 3 to be produced, they used around 75 percent of the same parts – including powertrains, door handles, and buttons.
This lowered manufacturing costs – and what company doesn’t want that, right?
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When it comes to the EV market, China is on the rise
If you’re in the EV world, you’ll have no doubt caught wind of the meteoric rise of Chinese EVs.
It seems that no matter where you look, they’re in ascendancy over their American counterparts.
BYD has been particularly fruitful in this regard, overtaking Tesla for sales in Europe, and making similar gains in the UK and Japan.
For the time being, tariffs have essentially shut them out of the US market – so Tesla can breathe a sigh of relief for now.
But that can’t be guaranteed to last forever.
Ford’s CEO declared that Ford had ‘no future’ if it couldn’t compete with the cars coming out of China.
And with one study finding more than half of Americans open to buying a Chinese car, time is ticking.
Tesla needs to learn how to compete, or it’ll find second place doesn’t come with such a rosy view.
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Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.
