For as popular as Tesla’s Model 3 already is, Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that demand for the company’s mass market EV may increase dramatically in the near future. In an exclusive report sourced from Electrek, Elon Musk, during a conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs a few days ago, articulated that annual demand for the Model 3 could eventually surpass 700,000 units. As a point of reference, the cumulative number of Model 3 reservations currently checks in at more than 500,000, an impressive figure to say the least,
“We anti-sell the Model 3,” Musk said just two months ago. “But our net reservations continue to climb week after week. No advertising, anti-selling, nothing to test drive, still grows every week.”
Of course, Model 3 demand has never been an issue for Tesla. On the contrary, demand for Tesla’s mass market EV has been so immense that it’s actually caused some welcome problems for the company. While Tesla expected the Model 3 to engender a lot of interest, the staggering number of reservations the company saw even took Elon Musk by surprise.
As a result, Tesla has taken a number of steps in an effort to make the manufacturing process more efficient as it seeks to boost production as quickly as possible. While it remains to be seen if Tesla can meet its goals, the company is hoping to manufacture 20,000 Model 3 units per month by the end of the year. In 2018, Tesla wants to boost Model 3 production to 40,000 units per year. As a point of comparison, Tesla in 2016 manufactured and delivered 76,000 vehicles, which is to say the company will have to be operating at full throttle over the next few months, with Elon Musk even noting the company is about to enter “production hell.”
