Ford paid $199,950 to tear down a Tesla Model X (opens in new tab)

I worked in an advanced vehicle design skunkworks at GM Design Staff in the late 1980's (a time when the quality of Japanese cars was a top threat to US car makers). While there I had access to a wide range of top of the line Japanese-domestic-market-only vehicles imported into the US specifically for teardowns just like this, frequently before Japanese buyers could obtain them locally domestically. In those days, it wasn't electric power plants that were the issue, it was (among other things) the density and efficiency and downright beauty with which the engine compartment contents were packed. I still remember standing around an open engine with a bunch of hotshot car guys, all of us in awe at the look of the engine compartment in front of us. There was nothing on the US market packed anywhere near as tightly, yet everything was completely accessible and downright beautiful. In hindsight I strongly suspect this was a sign they started using CAD packing tools long before we did (laser scanning of hand-sculpted car designs was still a few years away in the US, to say nothing of actual CAD-first designs). If the packing was done by hand (as it might well have been) I've genuinely no idea how they managed the complexity of that design task. Sometimes you need to see that someone has completely outclassed you in order to break free and take your own thinking to the next level. So yes, when there are Japanese or German or any other cars that stand out as major design advances, you can be sure Ford and GM and all the other major manufacturers have them in review and teardown the day they start coming off the assembly line.

Appropriately enough Honda acquired something like 20 Porsche 911s when developing the S2000, all individual purchases to hide the fact.

Cessna routinely did the same with competitors aircraft, back when they actually developed aircraft, but to save money they only leased them and had to ensure they were put back together.

Edit: finished the anecdote about Cessna

Long waiting lists aren't the norm for most cars. I have very little doubt that Ford routinely does timely teardowns of major vehicles that it competes with.

They do the same with all their competitors. (Yes even hondas)

Get one early, measure tolerances, get one 6 months later, see if their manufacturing practices got better.

To the degree there is protected IP, it would be covered by patents. Which are public. That's the point of a patent. And it doesn't matter if you were aware of the original art or not if you violate a patent.

If there are merely trade secrets/techniques that Tesla or anyone else simply hoped no one would be able to deduce but weren't otherwise protected, those are fair game.

It makes me wonder how useful the information will be, since it'll likely be done by the worst engineers in the company. Why would a good engineer sign up for this job?

The post does sound like a PR exercise for Lexus, but do a quick web search and you will be impressed with how good the Lexus was back then. They still are great cars. I have never nor do I have any future projects or connections with Toyota/Lexus or any of its affiliates. I just think they build good stuff. :)