Sandy Munro Unfiltered

Sandy Munro, famous for his willingness to express his (highly informed) opinions in a direct and unfiltered manner, joined the EV Club for a conversation on March 21st. The video has been posted on YouTube and is embedded below.

Munro clearly feels that mainstream press coverage of EV news is often ignorant and at times biased. This was his closing comment about why he holds these discussions with EV clubs and similarly interested audiences:

“My job, really, is to try and dispel as many of these silly rumors that are out there, and this is the only way to it because the normal press doesn’t want to have anything to do with the kind of discussion that we had here today.”

A few items contained in the video:

• On autonomous driving – “FSD is a myth by everybody until we move to Forward Looking Infrared. Lidar and cameras don’t reliably work. Only Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) can see through everything.” He also mentioned that FLIR is what the military uses and that about half of the work done by his engineering firm, Munro and Associates, is defense-related.
• On batteries – Pouch design does not hold up as well as cylindrical. The expansion and contraction kicks the daylights out of them. Solid state is the holy grail and will last indefinitely.
• The press over-sensationalizes Tesla issues because Tesla doesn’t buy ads. “If you don’t give us ads, we’re going to throw you under the bus.”
• The Tesla Gigacast will produce a body that is much stronger than any sheet metal currently in use.
• What did he find when he pulled out the floor of a Mustang Mach-E frunk?
• Should you be happy to see an ABB charger?

Automotive Engineer, Teardown Specialist, and Unlikely YouTube Rockstar, Sandy Munro, to Speak to EV Club.

Zoom meeting date and time: March 21st at 4 PM. Free registration at this link.

Munro has become well known for his “teardowns,” where he literally takes a vehicle apart in his facility and does a detailed engineering dissection. He has analyzed pretty much every EV in the market, along with many ICE vehicles.

Munro has been a longtime automotive engineer, having worked at Valiant Machine and Tool Company and Ford Motor Company before starting his own consultancy, Munro and Associates, specializing in lean design (according to his Wikipedia entry). Munro’s “design first” approach, attention to detail, and no-nonsense manner of communicating has enabled him to significantly reduce manufacturing cost for his clients, while improving product quality and consumer experience.

Many of us in the EV world became aware of him when he launched his YouTube channel in 2018, 30 years after the establishment of his consultancy, with a teardown of the then new Tesla Model 3. When the world pivoted to digital during the pandemic, his YouTube awareness greatly increased.

His teardowns and detailed reporting pre-date YouTube. A 2015 report on the BMW i3 ran 23,793 pages. As a stunt in 2020, Munro made the report available for ten bucks (original selling price at the time of publication was $89,000 according to Inside EVs. The download link is no longer live.)

The Munro Live YouTube channel is up to 358,000 subscribers. Join us for a conversation with Sandy Munro (CEO) and Cory Steuben (President). See you on the 21st!