Tesla Finally Hits 5,000-Car Model 3 Production Target Says Musk
In an excited email to employees, Tesla founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk wrote, "We did it!!," making sure to add an extra exclamation point for emphasis. What Tesla did, according to Musk's email, is finally achieve the automaker's goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 electric vehicles in a single week, hitting the goal in the last week of the quarter. But that's not 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 vehicle week!," Musk added.
7000 cars, 7 days
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2018
♥️ Tesla Team ♥️
While it took some time for Tesla to reach its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 vehicles, Musk is confident that the automaker won't be lifting its foot off the accelerator anytime soon. Just the opposite, Musk noted "widespread productivity gains" withing the company, and with the "new production lines spooling up," he expects to reach "6K/week for Model 3 next month."
"I think we just became a real car company....," Musk said.
No small feat for the ambitious automaker, Tesla noted in a regulatory filing that the past 12 months have been "some of the most difficult in Telsa's history." There have been numerous setbacks and challenges along the way, including an alleged attempt by a former employee to sabotage the company by hacking into Tesla's Gigafactory computer systems an stealing data.
The Model 3 is Tesla's first mass-produced electric vehicle. It is a mid-size sedan with a range of up to 310 miles (long-range model), and starts at $35,000 before incentives. Tesla's stock jumped 5 percent in pre-market trading following the news, indicating that investors are nearly as excited about the accomplishment as Musk.
