Tesla nearly hit its Model 3 goal of 5,000 cars a week, making it just a few hours after the June deadline passed
Tesla almost reached its targets for Model 3 production last night, making it just a few hours after midnight passed yesterday morning in a reveal that boosted its share price by 4.5 per cent.
CEO Elon Musk had previously said he wanted to reach total production numbers of 5,000 cars per week by the end of June. As 1 July rolled around, Tesla was only a few cars shy of that target.
Read more: Elon Musk says Tesla will ‘quite likely’ meet Model 3 production targets
According to reports from Reuters, workers said that the 5,000th car rolled off the production line at the Fremont, California factory around 5am local time yesterday.
In an email to employees later that day, Musk said the company had hit its target on time, and expects to produce 6,000 Model 3 sedans per week “next month”. Musk also said Tesla had hit its 7,000 per week Model S and Model X production targets at the same time.
The milestone comes as Tesla was forced to cut 9 per cent of its total workforce last month as it burned through cash trying to meet production targets, which saw the company building makeshift factories out of tents to urgently cover new production lines.
Read more: Tesla cuts nine per cent of staff as Elon Musk aims at profitability
However, the company has said it will not need to raise cash this year. Musk previously tweeted that Tesla is expected to reach profitability in either the third or fourth quarter.
Official production and delivery numbers released by the company this afternoon showed that Tesla produced 5,031 Model 3 cars in the last seven days of its second quarter, with 11,116 cars in transit to customers, to be delivered early next quarter.
Model 3 production has now tripled to a total of 28,578 cars in the second quarter, as its remaining net reservations stands at roughly 420,000.
The company’s share price was up by 4.51 per cent as markets opened this morning.
The company has been beset by controversy in recent weeks, as Musk accused former employees of sabotage after a small fire on one production line and filed a lawsuit against another for orchestrating a data leak to the press.
Read more: Tesla files lawsuit against former employee who hacked its systems