Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), in its first full year of production for the Model S in 2013, has built just over 20,000 vehicles or around 400 units per week. Three years later, for the first time in its history, the EV firm has achieved a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week, which means an annualized rate of 104,000 cars, says Electrek.
Meeting targets before time
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) revealed in its latest shareholders letter that it aims to exit the second quarter with a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week. This means it has achieved its target two weeks ahead of schedule, the report says. The company has set its delivery goal at 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles in 2016, so it was important for the company to achieve this goal.
On Monday, the company confirmed this news at its Tesla Weekend Social events. The company has been organizing special events for Tesla owners for the past few months to help them dive into specific subjects related to the company or its vehicles. Giving information on its factory, the product specialists at the event tried to convey new information to customers on new production rates along with some new interesting tidbits.
Citing a reliable source with knowledge of the matter, the report says that a few weeks ago, Tesla actually surpassed the 2,000-vehicle mark. With the intention of increasing its production rate, the EV firm hosted a massive job fair last month to hire hundreds of new production workers.
Model X a major contributor now
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s production numbers have big contributions from the Model X, which previously created some delays as the assembly process wasn’t ironed out. When it comes to readiness after assembly, the Model X lags slightly behind the Model S, according to the automaker. No extra work is required in over 90% of the vehicles (both S and X) coming out of the assembly lines, according to product specialists at the event.
Tesla has received a better-than-expected response for the upcoming Model 3 with over 373,000 reservations and wishes to significantly increase the production rate at its Fremont factory, for which it recently announced a new build plan. The automaker aims to hit annual vehicle production of 500,000 units by 2018 (revised from the previous goal of 500,000 units in 2020).
On Monday, Tesla shares closed down 0.42% at $217.87. Year to date, the stock is down by over 8%, while in the last year, it is down by over 13%. The stock has a 52-week high of $286.65, and a 52-week low of $141.05.
