As we suspected after Tesla employees were spotted celebrating earlier today, Tesla has achieved its Model 3 production milestone of 5,000 units in a week, according to CEO Elon Musk.
The company also achieved a new record overall production with 7,000 cars in a week.
The CEO made the announcement in an email to employees today obtained by Electrek.
In the email, Musk is congratulating employees for the effort it took to get there:
“We did it! What an incredible job by an amazing team. Couldn’t be more proud to work with you. It is an honor.
The level of dedication and creativity was mind-blowing. We either found a way or, by will and inventiveness, created entirely new solutions that were thought impossible.”
Musk, who just celebrated his 47th birthday on the factory floor, gave examples like the new general assembly line inside the tent and “transporting entire production lines across the world in massive cargo planes.”
The CEO then confirmed the achievements:
“Not only did we factory gate 5000 Model 3’s, but we also achieved the S & X production target for a combined 7000 vehicle week!”
Tesla had already achieved S & X production of over 2,000 units per week, but they are now apparently able to maintain that while making 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week.
The self-imposed target was introduced about 6 months ago after Tesla missed its original Model 3 production goal in December 2017.
Model 3 production had already significantly increased over those 6 months, but Tesla had heavily invested into a production capacity of over 5,000 units per week and it needed to get there in order to turn a profit on the vehicle program.
Musk has been telling investors that the company is aiming to become cash flow positive during the second half of the year.
The milestone also comes with the introduction of new options for the Model 3, like the dual motor powertrain and white interior for which Tesla started taking orders last month.
Tesla is expected to release the official production and delivery numbers for the second quarter early this week.
Electrek’s Take
While the employee celebration earlier today gave us a pretty good idea, this confirms it, but as we discussed in the previous post, it’s important to know how Tesla came to that number and whether or not they can maintain it from now on.
We should have a much better idea when Tesla releases its official Q2 production and delivery report later this week.
That said, it sounds like Tesla is not extrapolating its production rate like it did in the past.
Musk is talking about Tesla having produced 7,000 cars in 7 days.
It would add up to an all-electric car production capacity of over 300,000 vehicles per year, which is unheard of today.
That’s an incredible achievement for the electrification of transport.
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