After many delays, the American electric car manufacturer has finally managed to reach the 5K cars/week goal, and even surpassing it by 2K units.
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In the last week of June, Tesla managed to produce 5K units of the Model 3 car, its “cheaper” version, with a total of 7K cars manufactured overall in the same week. The company has been struggling for a very long time to meet this target, even reducing it a number of times. Originally, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, expected to produce 5K cars/week by December 2017, and 10K/week in 2018. For both Tesla and their investors, reaching the 5K units/week goal meant making a profit, with the company losing millions in production costs and delays. In the first quarter of 2018, Tesla lost close to 700 million $.
Tesla has traditionally had “burst production” periods, during which the company sped up production to reach their goal. Analysts warn to not rejoice too quickly and see if the company can keep up with this production rate over the coming weeks/months.
Tesla’s Model 3 is the most popular model of the company, with over 450K reservations at the end of the first quarter. New numbers suggest that with cancelations and deliveries, this number is now closer to 400K reservations, but some contradictory information claims reservations are higher, although some 23% of them could have been cancelled, with new reservations from other customers. To reserve a Model 3, potential clients have to make a deposit of 1K $, refundable if the buyer decides to cancel its reservation. Once the car is close to manufacturing, Tesla will ask for 2.5K $ more, to confirm the order. Once these 2.5K $ paid, the order cannot be cancelled.
Supposedly, the Model 3 will eventually cost 35K $, but only the more expensive versions are currently available, including premium interiors and a longer-range battery. These other versions start at 49K $ and can go up to 60K+ $ easily. Some criticizing has recently been made, as Tesla has deleted all mention of the 35K $ Model 3 from their website, claiming the standard battery option (costing 35K $) will come back in 6 to 9 months.
The company also cut 9% of its workforce at the beginning of June, firing some 4 000 workers, as well as scrapping their deal with Home Depot in the US. According to Tesla, these are mainly administrative positions or workers who worked for Tesla or as representants in Home Depot.
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