Jon McNeill, former president of Tesla’s global sales and marketing and now a General Motors board member, said that Tesla has dismantled Chinese electric vehicles to study their design — lessons that are visible in some of the company’s most successful models.

“Tesla is a learning sponge,” said McNeill, who worked at the EV maker from 2015 to 2018. During that period, the Model 3 was mired in “production hell,” and Tesla had only just released an initial teaser of the Model Y.

McNeill said one key takeaway from analyzing Chinese EVs was the reuse of components across models — a strategy reflected “across the 3 and the Y,” which share many underlying parts.