Tesla producing 1,000 Model 3 cars per day: Report
Tesla is now producing 1,000 of its flagship Model 3 sedans per day, hitting a key manufacturing benchmark set forth by CEO Elon Musk, according to a report Friday.
Musk confirmed the milestone in an email to Tesla employees, according to Electrek, an electric vehicle blog. The tech executive pressed employees to focus on maintaining that level of production on a continuous basis.
“If you are able to help in any way with getting Model 3 production to a steady 1000 per day at excellent quality, everyone at the company should please consider this their top priority,” Musk wrote, according to Electrek. “Body production currently appears to be our limiting factor, so it needs the most support right now. Please focus on simplification and reducing cycle time first and then uptime.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Tesla invested significant resources to ramp up production of the Model 3 line, its first attempt at a mass-market sedan. The company produced an internal record of more than 80,000 vehicles in its most recent fiscal quarter, including more than 53,000 Model 3s.
The electric-car maker posted its first profit in more than five years last quarter, recording adjusted earnings per share of $2.90 on net income of $311.5 million. Musk had vowed to achieve sustainable profitability by the end of 2018.
In addition to maintaining the production rate, Musk asked Tesla employees to focus on reducing costs and finding inefficiencies in the assembly process.
“It’s important to bear in mind that the cost of the car is made up of about 10,000 unique parts and processes,” Musk said. “Depending on how you count it, the current cost of a standard range Model 3 would be around $38,000, so each part or process step only costs around $3.80. That means finding cost efficiencies is a game of pennies, even though it might not seem so.”