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.
It can varry depending on how you want to scale it just like any business. not everything has to be crashed and tested to meet NHTSA standards, companies like SCG I recall do not or didn’t do crash tests, cars sold in limited quantities don’t have to be crashed long as they are sold under the 250 limit a year of which would mark them as a kit car manufacturer which I recall some former automotive company did years back to not get into trouble with the U.S goverment. As for companies like Pagani and Ghost Squadron vehicles, there’s been exemptions under show and display that let them bring the cars into the states without a crash test of said models. I know the egg did crash tests with the same reusable chassis which is actually really cool but most companies do not have that level of engineering and care because of our capitalistic approach.
TLDR: cost can be very low if you can start from scratch if you really wanted to out of your own garage post material marketing molding manufacturing like many other companies have done with tube frame kits such as DF Goblins and various other that just borrow other platforms: G35 vaydor as an example. however the higher you want to reach a level of standard the more it will cost an it gets expensive real quick to the point profitability becomes non existent as an actual car manufacturer unless you go mainstream and sell in mass which just means more and more money dumped into the company.