Tesla plans on more than doubling the production of its Model 3 cars. CEO Elon Musk sent an email to employees, obtained by Electrek, explaining that the company shut down production at the Gigafactory 1 in Nevada and Fremont factory in California in order to prepare for a substantial boost in manufacturing.
“Starting today at Giga and tomorrow at Fremont, we will be stopping for three to five days to do a comprehensive set of upgrades,” Musk wrote. “This should set us up for Model 3 production of 3000 to 4000 per week next month.”
Last quarter, Tesla’s aim was to produce 2,500 Model 3 units per week. They missed the goal by under 500 units. The company now strives to produce 5,000 units per week at the end of Q2. Musk says Tesla has a goal of 6,000 units per week when factoring in a margin of error.
“Another set of upgrades starting in late May should be enough to unlock production capacity of 6000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of June,” Musk continued. “Please note that all areas of Tesla and our suppliers will be required to demonstrate a Model 3 capacity of ~6000/week by building 850 sets of car parts in 24 hours no later than June 30th.”
Musk explained that Tesla will be focusing on quality as the number of units increases.
“It is extremely rare for an automotive company to grow the production rate by over 100% from one year to the next,” he added. “Moreover, there has simultaneously been a significant improvement in quality and build accuracy, which is reflected in positive owner feedback.”
Musk encouraged those who are struggling to meet the demands speak with him directly in order to achieve the production goal.
“By having a Model 3 subsystem burst-build requirement of 6k by the end of June, we will lay the groundwork for achieving a steady 6k/week across the whole Model 3 system a few months later,” he noted.
Operations at the Fremont facility will take place 24 hours a day in order to meet Model 3 production goals. As a result, 400 additional employees will be required at the facility.
Musk also mentioned the importance of precision engineering.
“Our car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and precision that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and flushness, and their measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs, it just means that their measuring tape is wrong,” he explained.
“Some parts suppliers will be unwilling or unable to achieve this level of precision. I understand that this will be considered an unreasonable request by some. That’s ok, there are lots of other car companies with much lower standards. They just can’t work with Tesla.”
The financial team at Tesla will simultaneously keep on top of spending: “Going forward, we will be far more rigorous about expenditures,” Musk wrote. “I have asked the Tesla finance team to comb through every expense worldwide, no matter how small, and cut everything that doesn’t have a strong value justification.”
Musk also suggested ways to boost productivity, such as keeping meetings short and improving communication between departments.
He ended his email with some encouraging words: “Thanks for being such a kickass team and accomplishing miracles every day. It matters. We are burning the midnight oil to burn the midnight oil.”
