Maybe not a full-scale brand like Toyota or Honda but a “boutique” sports car manufacturer such as Pagani, TVR, Rimac, etc. Some processes can probably be performed by hand (assembly, welding, painting, etc.) and not need expensive ABB, Fanuc, Dürr, Samsung, Kuka, etc. robots. Also: things like engine, transmission, differential, brakes, steering/suspension, airbags, sensors, lights/reflectors such as Hella 4169 etc. can probably be purchased instead of manufacturing yourself.
Expenses I can think of:
- Establishing the actual corporation, LLC, etc
- Buying/renting a large warehouse
- Sheet metal stamp/press for body parts
- Metal forge for suspension components
- Mold for polypropylene bumpers
- Mold for ABS parts (mirror caps, handles, etc)
- Machine to create all the glass
- Fiberglass station
- Welding equipment
- Paint line, paint booth and oven/curing
- Interior/upholstery department
- Storage aka parts department
- Lifts/dollies/conveyor belts for assembly line
- Crash testing 7 or more cars to legalize them
- Getting the cars federalized/legalized/homologated
- Getting the factory certified, similar as above
- Payroll for managers, marketing, laborers, janitors, maintenance, etc.
- Insurance and lawyers
- Upfront capital for purchasing raw materials
Obviously the starting price would be several million dollars even in a country like Vietnam, India or Mexico - but does anybody have a more specific answer? Can it be done for under $10m? Under $50m? Under $100m? Under $250m?
It would probably be low volume production due the cost effective nature, but the number still interests me.
Economic barriers to entry are typically listed as the key hurdle in new entrants to the car industry. This may come down in the future as skateboard electric power trains become more widespread.
But it’s not just stuff you think you can make yourself, a lot of it is finding and ordering parts from those parts that already exist. Sourcing parts and establishing contracts for delivery and quality and having the cash to pay for those is insanely complex.
That said, of course you can become a coach builder for very little money relatively speaking. This means churning out one offs at huge sale prices because you can replace expensive equipment (see: capital investment)with inexpensive equipment and labor.
Scaling is damn near impossible and almost killed Tesla numerous times - it will probably kill some of the newer competitors like Lucid over time once VC firms are no longer subsidizing loses