Tesla now ‘a real car company’ after hitting Model 3 production targets
In an internal email, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk praised his staff for finally reaching target of 5,000 Model 3s a week
American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has finally reached production targets for its first mass-market car – the Model 3.
The brand has missed ambitious targets in the past but last week produced a total of 5,031 Model 3s – finally reaching its goal of 5,000 units per week by the end of the second quarter of 2018.
That target was initially set for December 2017 but was pushed back twice – to the end of 2018’s first quarter and then its second quarter.
“I think we just became a real car company,” said chief executive and founder Elon Musk in a leaked memo to staff. “Transporting entire production lines across the world in massive cargo planes. Whatever. It worked.”
The brand’s tactics have met with some criticism, though. To meet targets, Tesla set up an assembly line in a rigid tent in one of the car parks of its California factory – a move some see as a quick and unsustainable fix to the problem. “A new building was impossible, so we built a giant tent in 2 weeks,” tweeted Musk at the time.
Musk’s tweets also included photographs of parts and equipment lined up ready for fitting, such as a huge room full of drivers’ seats or electric motors. Though the images look encouraging, commenters said this method was far from efficient – pointing Musk towards the ‘just-in-time’ system employed by most major car manufacturers, which sees parts delivered to the factory just hours before they’re due to be fitted to a car.
On top of the 5,031 Model 3s produced, Tesla also built 1,913 examples of the Model X SUV and Model S saloon. However, a comment from Musk praising his team for ‘7,000 cars, 7 days’ was met with derision from the European chief executive of Ford, Steven Armstrong, who tweeted in response ‘7,000 cars, 4 hours’.
Tesla now hopes to maintain production of 5,000 Model 3s per week, with the company saying it expects to increase capacity to 6,000 per week by late August. The milestone is seen as a major step on the path to profitability – Tesla has yet to make money.
With this production goal accomplished, Tesla says it will become profitable in the third and fourth quarters of 2018.
