All thanks to a bit of tenting.
It seems that American EV carmaker Tesla has finally, finally pulled itself out of months of “production hell” and finally hit its goal of producing some 5,000 Model 3 compact saloons a week, some 7-months late of its original deadline at the end of last year. The 5,000th Model 3 of the week completed its final checks about 5-hours after the midnight deadline passed on the production target, but Tesla is still celebrating hitting it at all.
“Not only did we factory gate over 5000 Model 3’s, but we also achieved the S & X production target, for a combined 7000 vehicles in a week!” — Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc.
The sudden ability to ramp up production was achieved in no small part thanks to a tent that Tesla’s erected outside its Fremont, California factory, which has acted as an additional production line. The tent is one of various initiatives that the company’s taken to surmount the seemingly-endless production challenges the company has faced since they began building customer Model 3s.
One of the biggest contributors to the Model 3’s production difficulties has been Tesla’s reliance on a highly-automated production line, something that CEO Elon Musk has admitted in interviews to have been a mistake. Nearly-continuous retooling and optimisation of the 3’s production processes have also been undertaken to streamline the production line as much as possible.
The ramp-up in production means that Tesla can finally eke a profit out of the Model 3. Prior to hitting the 5k/week target, Tesla’s been losing money on every Model 3 that rolls out the door; But now that targets have been hit, Tesla should be able to achieve the 25% profit margin on the Model 3 (something it’s claimed in the past). That should bode well for a company that might be seeking to shore up its finances, as Tesla has very recently started to ask its US & Canadian Model 3 customers to fork over their US$2500 ‘configuration fees’ (more on that here).
With production of the Model 3 finally at the levels they’re supposed to have been at at the end of 2017, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Tesla going forwards, as there may be changes to delivery schedules very soon (hopefully including Australian buyers too).
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