Tesla has been in production hell for the Model 3 as it hasn’t been able to properly ramp up production for its mass-market electric car. The company’s CEO Elon Musk has acknowledged that excessive automation is partly to be blamed for the production bottlenecks. An internal email from Tesla has been leaked online which reveals that Musk has now set a more aggressive production target for the Model 3 in order to meet demand.
The email reveals that Musk’s new aggressive target involves operating the company’s factory in Fremont, California, 24 hours a day the entire week. He added that the company needs to make 6,000 units of the Model 3 per week by the end of June in order to meet its goal. This is an increase of its previous target of 5,000 units per week.
For that purpose, Tesla will hire 400 people per week for several weeks at its Fremont facility and the Gigafactory in Nevada where it makes batteries for its electric cars.
The reasoning behind this is that the 5,000 units target left Tesla with “no margin for error” across the entire manufacturing process and supply chain. “Actual production will move as fast as the least lucky and least well-executed part of the entire Tesla production/supply chain system,” Musk writes in the email.
The first step of this latest production ramp is to temporarily halt production of the Model 3 to perform a “comprehensive set of upgrades” which will enable the company to provide up to 4,000 units per week by next month.