Tesla says Model 3 production at ‘over 200 units per day’, pushing to get to 2,500 units/week, says report

In the last few days of the quarter, all eyes are on Tesla’s Model 3 production rate, which the company guided at 2,500 units per week by the end of March.

Now, a new report claims that Tesla confirmed that Model 3 production is at ‘over 200 units per day’ and they are pushing hard to get to over 300 units by the end of the quarter.

Bloomberg says that it obtained an email from Doug Field, Senior Vice President of Engineering, to employees at Fremont factory last week.

In the email, Field reportedly confirms that Tesla is currently producing “over 200 Model 3 vehicles per day” and urges workers to do everything they can to prove the naysayers wrong and get to over 300 units per day.

He called it “a critical moment in Tesla’s history”:

The world is watching us very closely, to understand one thing: How many Model 3’s can Tesla build in a week? This is a critical moment in Tesla’s history, and there are a number of reasons it’s so important. You should pick the one that hits you in the gut and makes you want to win.

Over 200 units per day extrapolated to a full week should mean over 1,400 units, which is significantly short of Tesla’s goal of 2,500 units per week.

Field reportedly added in the email:

We set high goals at Tesla, but I know we can do this. If we keep climbing from 300 through the end of the week, it will be an incredible victory. Your friends and family will hear about it in the news.

Separately, Bloomberg also claims to have obtained an email from Peter Hochholdinger, Tesla’s Vice President of Production, about Tesla shutting down Model S and Model X production for one day on Friday.

A Tesla spokesperson told Electrek that the shutdown had nothing to do with Model 3 production, but they couldn’t confirm the reason for the shutdown.

Electrek’s Take

As we previously reported, Tesla has been increasing the rate of new Model 3 VIN registration this month and it is about in line with those numbers.

I also speculated that Tesla could try again to extrapolate its production rate from the last few days of the month to claim a higher Model 3 production rate when exiting the quarter.

They did the same thing in Q4 2017, but we are talking about a 50% increase in about a week, which sounds almost impossible.

Tesla is expected to release its first-quarter production and delivery numbers next week.

As for the Model S and Model X production shutdown, it is certainly an interesting situation and it is strange that Tesla can’t confirm the reason.

However, it’s not rare for Tesla to temporarily shut down production and every time, it spurs speculation of an update to be introduced to those vehicles.

We have been anticipating a Model S and Model X update in 2018, but it’s still unconfirmed at this point.