Why were so little of these tanks made? Was it becasue they cost a lot of money or they were to hard to mass produce?
Yes, they were quite expensive to make. Think of it this way, if they weren't, more would have been made since they were excellent tanks .
More then that they also were very complex and took a hell of alot of man hours to produce. The amount of time to produce a Tiger and Tiger II from the labor required of all sub component suppliers along with the final assembly is tremendous. I have seen quotes of up to 300,000 man hours!!!! The Sherman and the T-34 on the other hand were meant to be mass produced in a short amount of time. "please see the following page: http://www.achtungpanzer.com/tiger.htm that shows that the "cost" of the typical Tiger is 300,000 Reichmarks. Here's another site that notes the cost of a Tiger as 250,000 Reichmarks http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/tiger_tank.htm. At historical exchange rates of approximately 40 cents per Reichmark, a Tiger would thus have cost approximately $100,000 - $120,000 contemporary dollars.'
Too much quality, as said before. Way too expensive and heavy to mass-produce. It was the same with the Panther and Tiger II.
It took half the time to produce a Panther then it did with a Tiger or Tiger II. And cost about 46,800 RM.
Don't forget, that by the time the tiger was showing up the British were bombing the industries and harassing the German suppy lines, as well as the fact that because they took so long to assemble the war ended before to many could be built.
