Tesla achieves Model 3 production goal for record quarter with 2 days still to go

Tesla had quite the ambitious Model 3 production goal for this quarter and it was hard to believe it was achievable after months of delays.

Now Electrek has learned that Tesla already achieved the goal for a new record production with two days still to go before the end of the quarter.

We have been tracking Tesla’s production in the past few weeks of this critical period as the company is attempting to become profitable.

As we reported last week, Tesla achieved a new record day of Model 3 production, but it was cutting it close for the quarterly goal.

The automaker had been guiding a production of 50,000 to 55,000 Model 3 vehicles for the third quarter.

According to a reliable source familiar with Tesla’s production, the automaker had a strong week of production and managed to bring the total number Model 3 produced to over 51,000 vehicles.

For the first time in months, Tesla was able to produce about 5,000 Model 3 vehicles over seven days.

The total production for the week was at around 6,700 vehicles – bringing the total for the quarter to about 77,400 vehicles.

Tesla was able to maintain production of about 1,100 cars per day over four days this week and about 800 Model 3’s per day over three of those days. It’s one of the highest levels of production that Tesla was ever able to maintain.

Earlier this month, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla is on track for “the most amazing quarter in their history” and that they are “building and delivering more than twice as many cars as they did last quarter.” Tesla said that it built 53,339 vehicles, including 28,578 Model 3’s last quarter.

Electrek’s Take

As usual, let me start by saying that no matter how you look at the numbers, Tesla is producing electric vehicles at an incredible rate, better than any legacy automaker, and that should be celebrated.

But it is also important that Tesla reaches its production goals in order for the company to become profitable and sustainable.

Therefore, we release these numbers to help our readers track the progress toward that goal.

What we learned this week is that the production side did its job at least in terms of volume. Results are still unclear when it comes to deliveries, but we expect them to also be exceptionally high.

According to our source, Tesla already produced over 51,000 Model 3’s this quarter and if they maintain the current level of production over the weekend, they will be really close to a total of 80,000 cars produced, including about 53,000 Model 3 vehicles, which would actually be on the higher side of Tesla’s own guidance.

Extrapolated for a year, it is equivalent to an annual production rate of 320,000 vehicles. It’s quite significant when you consider that Tesla produced just about 2,000 vehicles back in 2012.

This record performance comes at a strange time for Tesla as Musk is being sued by the SEC, but I personally think that this accomplishment should outweigh the authorities going after Musk because of a few tweets.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.