Tesla sends out another Model 3 configuration invite batch despite production shutdown

As we reported earlier this week, Tesla temporarily shut down production this week to update the line in order to enable a higher production capacity.

Despite the downtime, Tesla sent out another batch of Model 3 configuration invites this week.

We received reports from several Model 3 reservation holders across the US about receiving the invite over the past two days.

Many of them were first-day reservation holders, which could mean that Tesla is implementing the fix to the invite rollout.

After complaints from first-day reservation holders in the US who had yet to receive their invite, CEO Elon Musk said that there was an issue with the rollout and that Tesla was working on it.

Based on a community-run spreadsheet of Model 3 invites, the problem with first-day reservation holders not being invited yet isn’t completely fixed, but it significantly improved over the last week:

Tesla is still not inviting non-owners who reserved after April 1, 2016 in the US, which they have done for owners.

It’s important to note that many people who get invited don’t actually turn the reservation into an order for whatever reason – though the main one is generally because the configuration that they want is still not in production.

Over the last three weeks, Tesla was able to maintain a production rate of about 2,000 units per week, which is expected to result in many deliveries over the next few weeks.

This week, Musk explained that the production shutdown is to update production systems in preparation for increasing the rate.

There’s no indication that new features are coming to production after the shutdown.

The first new option is expected to be the dual motor powertrain, which Musk says is now planned for July.

Furthermore, the latest invites are still going to US-based reservation holders – still giving no indication that Tesla is going to focus Model 3 deliveries in Canada in order to push the 200,000th US delivery. This represents the threshold for the start of the federal tax credit phaseout.