What resource chains are needed to make vehicle production cost effective?

[WyntrHeart]

Also, is there somewhere in-game or online I can find the amount of materials needed to produce specific vehicle?

[MagnusA]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2162233070

[WyntrHeart]

This doesn't tell me how much of those things I need to make vehicle production cost effective (cheaper than importing vehicles) or how much material is needed for a given vehicle

[KJ]

cant easily answer this. Depends on what vehicle you produce. I would start with mechanics + steel + coal/ ore processing. Raw ore you can import. Idk about electonics... Fabric you only need tiny amounts, so not needed... plastic is better to import.

[WyntrHeart]

Ok cool, thank you.

[Dave]

It also depends on how many you need. If you are only building a few for yourself and not planning on exporting, then the blueprint cost a lot.

Having all the industries is ideal, but a lot of them do not really require much infrastructure or well-planned logistics because the materials are so light and/or you need so little quantity of them.

In my opinion the pre-requisites to make Vehicle production a good idea are to have a good Steel Industry, and a good Chemical Industry. And then you add everything else, but the rest of it can be haphazard because quanitiies/weights you are dealing with are small and only one of each production building is plenty, and it's all made from steel and chemicals or the same raw materials as steel/chemicals.

[WyntrHeart]

Is there a way for me to look at the material cost of different vehicles without actually building the production line? I guess I could make a new game on easy/cheat mode just to check that stuff. A reference table would be nice tho

[joeball123]

Originally posted by KJ:

Raw ore you can import.

I would suggest some caution here. Coal ore is converted to coal at a 7:4 ratio, iron ore is converted to iron at a 15:7 ratio, and coal and iron are converted to steel at a 75+40:8 ratio, so coal and iron need to be around twice the cost of their ores before importing the ores and refining them domestically begins to make sense while steel needs to be around fifteen times the average cost of coal and iron or around twenty-seven times the average cost of their ores before domestic steel production using imported coal and iron or domestically-refined imported ores begins to make sense.

That, mind you, is before factoring overhead costs - most directly, power and transportation costs. Operating a Coal Processing Plant, an Iron Processing Plant, a Steel Mill, a Mechanical Components Factory, and a Vehicle Assembly Hall at some reasonably large fraction of capacity costs considerably more power than operating the Vehicle Assembly Hall alone. Producing one ton of steel requires about 27 tons of ore, so transportation costs - whether in power and fuel required to operate trains and trucks or in the surcharge added to resource costs when auto-purchasing materials at the factory - are about 27 times higher when importing ores to produce steel than when importing steel, assuming you're moving materials about the same distance in either case. Less directly, there's the cost of supporting the workforce with goods, services, and transportation, with larger workforces carrying higher costs. There might also be loan repayments to make, if loans were taken out to cover setup costs.

[forzion]

First of all I would not recommend vehicle production as a starting industry. It was added to the game as something for later game and the beat approach is to get all the basic and advanced resources first and if you have a good supply of them then you can go for vehicle production successfully.

It cannot be considered something profitable just to setup this industry because you need few vehicles.

As it was mentioned above the supply chain is quite extended and it is much better for any player to master basics first and gradually advance to more difficult stuff. Trust me it is beneficial in the long run. I do not have a single vehicle production line on my map and I am in year 2007. It is not because I do not have money for that or resources but I do not have the worforce and infrastructure ready yet as I was concentrating on other stuff first.

I would not bother to make vehicles from imported materials if your vehicle production line is not right to the border because you will loose money if you try to export vehicles you made from imported materials. At least steel and mechanical components are needed to have some margin going. I would not bother with how much single vehicle costs because the rates of materials can be quite similar just the total amount could differ a bit.

I would suggest to make some vehicles you yourself can use first because that gives you additional benefit especially in the long run instead of focusing on profits from exports.

[WyntrHeart]

Yeah, the intention was primarily to supply my own vehicle needs rather than export anyway. Especially since I don't use western vehicles (I don't trade with the west at all) so I couldn't sell them for much.

I use lots of mods, and two of them are smaller (thus slower) vehicle assembly lines. Once I can supply my own mechanical components (I've already got steel) if I can afford to build a smaller vehicle plant, would I save money? I'd still need to import electronics and plastic

[KJ]

Originally posted by joeball123:

Originally posted by KJ:

Raw ore you can import.

I would suggest some caution here.

You lose money if you make steel from imported ore alone, only with ore processing is it profitable. Ore processing is only 15 people per processing, and you need maybe 2 plants at max. If vehicles should be profitable, then build western vehicles and export to east. Way higher payout than eastern vehicles.

If you dont export then no you propably dont save enough money to make it worth the investment. If its so important to save the last rubel, then you have to get out the calculator. The values are all there

[Dave]

The thing is, the implication of that is that ore processing must be a good profitable stand-alone industry. I guess it does scrape out a small profit margin, but I would never dream of setting it up as a standalone industry.

I dunno it just kind of seems pointless to set up an industry and then pay to import. It dilutes your profits (unless its something indepedently worthwhile like an oil refinery or a chem plant), and you cant afford to stop exporting for a big construction project or your money goes the wrong direction.