huh? you realize that Tesla spends less than $300M a quarter in R&D when companies they now dwarf like Ford and GM consistently spend more than $1B each?
in fact Tesla’s R&D spend has noticeably shrunk since last year, which is another head scratcher considering how many projects they claim to be working on, including a “full rewrite of FSD”
I don't think the two of you have points in contention. That is to say, I think it is accurate to say that Ford and GM _spend_ more on R&D but Tesla _executes_ more on R&D. In fact, I would say that very discontinuity forms much of the basis for Tesla's very (some would say irrationally) high P/E ratio!
Either they are publicly exaggerating the scope of the projects they are working on (eg the “million mile” battery and “full rewrite of FSD”), severely underpaying engineers and understaffed, or something else.
Starting from 0, valuing employee opinion, and removing red tape saves countless employee hours and makes good people stay.
Other companies might consider exoskeleton a R&D thing, Tesla just handles that as part of their Cybertruck development cost.
The same goes for a lot of their developments.
What matters is how fast and how often new technology goes into your next product. If you look at the Cybertruck, how many innovative stuff there is, I really don't care how much R&D they have, I'm just impressed with how many innovations they bring to market with each iteration of their cars.
John DeLorean achieved his original initial career arc by resurrecting the Pontiac brand. Technically speaking, there wasn't a terrible amount of innovation there -- the idea was using existing products in a new way by putting a bigger engine into a smaller frame and marketing it in a sexy manner. But it took off like wildfire. He invented the idea of a muscle car.
So, as sibling comments say, you may not buy the efficiency argument, but will you buy the focus argument? Tesla made a name out of doubling down on the future instead of the past. They were first to market with a vehicle so iconic it become eponymous with the sector itself. They built a global supercharger network to challenge the whole idea of a gasoline vehicle being the norm. Personal feelings regarding the antics of their founder (and horrible mismanagement/mistreatment of ICs inside the company) aside, I have a lot of respect for the innovations that their product culture has achieved.
Only one of these has long term impacts but they are both "R&D"
The only ones doing real new work that is available to buy instead of investing ludicrous amounts of money shaving half grams of fleet CO2 from doomed ICEs and ungodly amounts of lobbying are Toyota with their Prius, BMW with the i3, i8 and whatever is slated for 2021 and VW with their modular platform (and all three are still not even close to catching up to Tesla). The rest are dealing, at best, with toy projects, greenwashing, that will not have any major impact. After all, SUVs have fat margins while most electric projects are cash burners.