Elon Musk says Tesla could build 500,000 vehicles this year if it has a successful fourth quarter.
At the start of the year, Tesla said it was on track to comfortably exceed 500,000 units this year but that was prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the impact the pandemic has had on Tesla’s production output, Musk recently sent out an email to employees encouraging them to do whatever they can to increase output.
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“This all comes down to Q4. Please take whatever steps you can think of to improve output (while increasing quality),” Musk wrote, as reported by Tesmanian. “When we started Tesla just over 16 years ago, I never thought we would get this far, but, thanks to your hard work and ingenuity, we actually have a chance of making half a million cars in a single year. Wow, that is so incredible!!”
Tesla delivered 139,300 vehicles and produced 145,036 vehicles in the third-quarter, an all-time high for the car manufacturer. However, if Tesla is to hit its 500,000 target, it will need to deliver nearly 182,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter which will be no small task.
The Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, China has proven to be vital in increasing the company’s global production this year. In fact, the Shanghai site aims to produce 150,000 Model 3s this year, having first started production in late 2019.
“It will be tough, but super exciting if we can exceed half a million cars made in a single year for the first time in Tesla history!” Musk continued in his email.
