It’s no secret that Tesla’s top priority right now is ramping up production on the Model 3. Following a number of production delays, Elon Musk a few months back promised that Tesla would be able to manufacture 5,000 Model 3 units per week by the end of June. And with that deadline just about five weeks away, it appears that Tesla is finally starting to make some legitimate progress.
During the company’s most recent earnings report, we learned that Model 3 production reached 2,270 units per week by the end of April. More recently, a leaked email from Elon Musk revealed that Tesla was on the cusp of manufacturing 3,500 units per week. In light of that, a new report from Electrek reveals that Tesla has since reached that goal.
According to the report, Musk this week sent out a congratulatory email to employees highlighting a 500/units production rate.
“First time we’ve been able to run at a rate of 500/day or an extrapolated 3500 customer deliverable cars per week,” Musk’s email reads. “Congratulations on a big milestone!”
That’s certainly encouraging news but it remains to be seen if Tesla can reach its goal of manufacturing 5,000 units per week by the end of the current quarter. The good news is that production seems to be trending upward after a surprisingly slow start. As Musk explained during a recent interview with CBS, Model 3 production was initially hampered by an overly complex production line that put too much of an emphasis on automation.
One more thing that we’ve also found is that there are some things that are very well suited to manual operation and some things that are very well suited to automated operation, and the two should not be confused. So, I should be clear that the vast majority of the Tesla production system is automated. However, as I’ve mentioned in a tweet a few months ago, we did go too far on the automation front and automated some pretty silly things.
Not too long ago, Tesla promised shareholders that the company might finally turn a profit during the latter-half of 2018. It’s a bold promise — given Tesla’s history — but it may be achievable if Tesla can continue to increase Model 3 production rates.
