June 20, 2018—In a leaked email obtained by CNBC, Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said that Model 3 production still needs “radical improvements” to meet targets. Simply put, much work remains if the company is going to meet its target of 5,000 in weekly Model 3 output by the end of the month.
“All parts of the Model 3 production system are now above 500 and some are almost at 700 cars already,” Musk said in the email. He added that “radical improvements are still needed in paint shop output, GA3, bringing up the new GA4, End of Line and Module Zone 4 at Giga,” and that “[w]e also need to achieve sustained, 700+ per week on the body line.”
Tesla declined to comment, but just because production capacity might be increasing, it doesn’t mean that Tesla will necessarily be able to reliably produce its targeted number of vehicles. For example, “GA3” and “GA4” are “general assembly” lines, where the various components of the Model 3 are put together, on an around-the-clock schedule. Tesla has also had issues with automating Model 3 assembly, and has now switched to running two parallel lines, plus a new fourth line that’s in the process of being installed.
And, the company has been doing all of this on the fly, according to Business Insider, which strays from typical practices in the auto industry.
