It came down to the last few hours, but Tesla manage to achieve its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s in the space of a week at its factory in California. Elon Musk was delighted to have risen to this particular challenge and is now looking to increase production levels of the electric sedan in the future. Some observers however are sceptical as to whether the automotive manufacturer will be able to maintain these levels of production.

In the last week of June, 5,000 Model 3s came off the Tesla production line in Fremont, USA, thus seemingly achieving the goal set by the CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Elon Musk. Two employees from the factory in California nevertheless admitted to Reuters that the last of the cars was actually officially finished a few hours after midnight which was the limit set by the multi-billionaire.

Delay of a few hours but mission accomplished none the less

The 5,000^th Tesla Model 3 made that week apparently passed all of the quality control tests that were carried out at around 5 am according to an anonymous source, but this minor setback was not enough to stop Musk from sending an e-mail to all Tesla employees on Sunday 1 July congratulating them on achieving the stated aim. The mail spoke of the triple challenge that the company had mastered, namely producing 5,000 of the Model 3 and 7,000 of the Model S and the Model X in the space of a week.

"I think that we’ve just become a real automotive manufacturer," the legendary CEO said, before going on to announce his wish to produce 6,000 Model 3s a week "as early as next month". Large-scale production of the Tesla sedan, which began in July 2017, was handicapped for a long time by a number of problems, most notably with the car’s batteries and the over-automation of the production line.

Assembly line in a tent

The US manufacturer eventually overcame these hurdles and even set up an extra assembly line in a tent outside the factory. Tesla ramped up the pressure throughout the last few days, tweeting photos of the production site that was a hive of activity. "Everyone was mobilised," one employee said. "It was really intense."

The question now is whether Tesla will be able to maintain this level of production over the long term, with investors and shareholders in the automotive manufacturer keeping a close eye on the situation.

Allianz Partners