Tesla Hits Model 3 Production Target

[Megalith]

Tesla appears to have overcome “production hell,” as the automaker has managed to achieve its targeted Model 3 production rate of 5,000 units per week based on celebratory posts from employees on social media. While the official numbers aren’t in yet, Tesla’s backlog of orders should begin to get lighter.

Tesla first planned on achieving the production rate in December 2017, but it was stuck in what the company called “production hell” in the early months of the start of Model 3 production, which officially started in July 2017. The goal was pushed to the end of the second quarter which ended yesterday. CEO Elon Musk moved his office to the factory floor. Tents were built.

 

[MikeTrike]

I hope it's correct.

 

[Brians256]

I hope it's correct.

Me too. Most importantly, many employees have put blood (probably literally if they are in assembly) into this and they deserve a win. Since I'm not an investor, I don't give two hoots about their stock price, but this is about boots on the ground overcoming near-impossible goals with horrendous challenges and I'm rooting for them. If they can produce the car to spec, it's a good design. I'm sure the pressure to cut corners is intense and I wouldn't be surprised to see an uptick in the need for mental health providers soon. People aren't all uncaring super humans and these great successes come at the cost of people's health - mental and physical.

So, if this succeeds, we need to celebrate the triumph of those workers and not just idolize Elon Musk. Musk deserves credit for some awesome goals and the unmitigated sack to carry on despite the naysayers. However, we need to remember that he's still fairly uncaring about work-life balance and his employees. Since he has no internal governor, it needs to be external. I'm surprised someone hasn't died yet through emotional stress, honestly. People you think are tough sometimes aren't, and vice versa. The human mind is weird and you don't even know how your own mind will work sometimes.

Hurrah, Tesla, if you succeeded! I'd love one if I could afford it, and I'm glad the company exists for those who can and/or will.

 

[[Spectre]]

And quality hits a new all time low.

 

[macksomerville]

I hope continued success for tesla, if for nothing else than pushing autonomous driving. Humans need to be taken out of the driving loop...

 

[Cyraxx]

Hope they succeeded.... I started investing when they hit $275 some time back

In actuality, I don't care too much, they are a very tiny bit of my after-tax individual stock investments.

 

[bigdogchris]

 

[IRSmurf]

I discussed this with one of my coworkers today, who's considering ordering a Model 3. He was told if he orders now, they'll deliver it within six months.

 

[Ocellaris]

I wouldn’t touch any of this shit until Tesla stop cock blocking people trying to get parts or repair their own cars.

 

[Trimlock]

Well the model 3 just went back on my list.

 

[LightsOut41]

You're crazy if you believe his propaganda. He's almost out of money and can't secure additional funding.

That is one car produced every minute and a half. Bullshit.

 

[Mong00se]

You're crazy if you believe his propaganda. He's almost out of money and can't secure additional funding.

That is one car produced every minute and a half. Bullshit.

That math checks out, after one quick search I found the Ford owned Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, MO produced 460,338 automobiles in 2011.

Edit: If you were wondering that's one car every 1minute 9seconds.

 

[Showbiz]

And quality hits a new all time low.

Still hoping that short position comes through eh?

 

[Atearen]

I discussed this with one of my coworkers today, who's considering ordering a Model 3. He was told if he orders now, they'll deliver it within six months.

Damn, you know there's brand value when (independent from what your coworker decides) most of Tesla's customers are willing to wait a semester, while they could buy any other car within a day

I wouldn’t touch any of this shit until Tesla stop cock blocking people trying to get parts or repair their own cars.

They will probably keep doing these bad practices, their target customer probably thinks it's normal and tell everybody it's the best customer support ever.

 

[[Spectre]]

Still hoping that short position comes through eh?

www.google.com

 

[TrailRunner]

Damn, you know there's brand value when (independent from what your coworker decides) most of Tesla's customers are willing to wait a semester, while they could buy any other car within a day



They will probably keep doing these bad practices, their target customer probably thinks it's normal and tell everybody it's the best customer support ever.

Those of us who like to fix our own things are in the minority, most people just want their auto to get them from Point A to Point B, and couldn't care less about serviceability. If you want to tinker, tune, or change your own oil, a Tesla's not for you. 99% of the car buying public would be overjoyed if they were told that they never had to get their oil changed, there's a good selling point for EVs right there.

 

[1_rick]

Entertainingly, someone predicted they'd hit 5000 this week, but it'd be a gimmick. I guess we'll see if they report production numbers NEXT week:

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2018/06/what-tesla-is-doing-this-week.html

"In the past Tesla has resorted to the "run-rate" claim, that their run rate for a day or an hour was at such and such much higher number. So that is, I think, what is going to happen this week. Parts and subassemblies are likely being stored up so that in a great burst 714 can be completed in one day or if not that, 30 or so can be completed in an hour so that the company can claim a 5,000 unit weekly run rate was achieved. This is obviously BS -- any bottlenecked process can usually be juiced for a short period of time (examples: Transcontinental Railroad track laying record, Liberty ship build time record) -- but I predict we will see it. I also wouldn't be surprised if you found the numbers for last week were actually below trend due to Tesla hoarding sub-assemblies and parts for huge one-off production push this week."

 

[Nolan7689]

And quality hits a new all time low.

Ehhhh. Cars prior to more modern times often had defects right from the manufacturer. The fit on fenders and doors didn’t line up plenty often in the 50s/60s. Manufacturing wasn’t always absolute precision.

 

[travisty]

And quality hits a new all time low.

Seeing as you don't speak out of experience with the Model 3 let me. I have a VIN from the 84xx range and I have to say I've had no issues with the car. TBH it's the best car i've owned. Love the fact that the car keeps getting better over time with OTA updates. No dealerships to go to. No gas stations to visit. It's wonderful.

The drive is amazing. The low center of gravity and responsive steering lets me hug corners. Acceleration is top notch at any speed range. 0-60 in just over 4.5 seconds. If i press down on the pedal at 30, 50, and even 70 the instant acceleration will push me back in my seat.

In the 3 months i've owned it auto-pilot's just gotten better. At this point I let it do roughly 90% of the driving. It takes some getting use to but it's very predictable. Stop and go traffic? Not a problem. I can monitor instead of actively wait. Long drive to the airport? I might have driven a total of 5 minutes out of the 2 hour trip there and back. Autonomous driving is also coming along. To get it will just be OTA update; no need to buy a brand new car like every other manufacturer will require.

Range? Airport trip there and back and i still had over 200 miles range. Need more? Plenty of fast charging stations around. Haven't needed them though as all my charging is done in my garage at night.

Only thing that doesn't work reliably? Phone as key. They've improved it but it's still a WIP. Security wise it's much better than key-fobs, just need phone makers to respect bluetooth standards. Easy fix for this problem though. I've just attached the key-card to the back of my phone's case and that works fine.

 

[Sonicks]

This is good news for Tesla. I have been seeing a few of these on the road in Dallas and I can't help but think they couldn't be the lucky few first so maybe production is speeding up.

www.google.com

What a clever response. I bet you love seeing all the negative press about Tesla. What does it do for you exactly?

It's odd that people celebrate the few shortcomings of a company that is very clearly shaking things up. We've had the Big Three for so long and people decide to shit on the one true fourth player that has stepped into the ring? Not only are they producing and selling vehicles at volume but they are doing so with out a conventional combustion engine. Those simple two facts alone best any article anyone could ever cite regarding their quality/reliability.

 

[[Spectre]]

Seeing as you don't speak out of experience let me. I have a VIN from the 74xx range and I have to say I've had no issues with the car. TBH it's the best car i've owned. Love the fact that the car keeps getting better over time with OTA updates. No dealerships to go to. No gas stations to visit. It's wonderful.

Sample size of one, not the greatest way to look at a product. How about look at rework rate? Tesla hits 90% rework rates yet someone like Toyota hits just 10%. And it all comes down to speed and lack of a mature manufacturing process. It is pretty simple.

What a clever response. I bet you love seeing all the negative press about Tesla. What does it do for you exactly?

Telsa's massive quality control issues are widely known.

It's odd that people celebrate the few shortcomings of a company that is very clearly shaking things up. We've had the Big Three for so long and people decide to shit on the one true fourth player that has stepped into the ring? Not only are they producing and selling vehicles at volume but they are doing so with out a conventional combustion engine. Those simple two facts alone best any article anyone could ever cite regarding their quality/reliability.

You obviously are not into automobiles in the slightest if you think this is somehow directed at Tesla because they are.....whatever they are. Ask Lucas, Rover, Fiat, Malaise Era Big 3, Alfa, etc.......what it is like when you make a poor product and you are the standard bearers. No, it has nothing to do with Tesla and everything to do with bad product quality.

 

[Sonicks]

Sample size of one, not the greatest way to look at a product. How about look at rework rate? Tesla hits 90% rework rates yet someone like Toyota hits just 10%. And it all comes down to speed and lack of a mature manufacturing process. It is pretty simple.

Growing pains of a newcomer in a field of veterans.

Don't discredit Tesla for being new to the game. The sheer fact they are in their current position says a lot. Problems or not, it's not indicative of what they can become.

 

[[Spectre]]

Growing pains of a newcomer in a field of veterans.

Don't discredit Tesla for being new to the game. The sheer fact they are in their current position says a lot. Problems or not, it's not indicative of what they can become. Good news is not as entertaining as bad news so it's no wonder why we hear so much of the latter for Tesla.

No one is discrediting them, simply pointing out the product quality is bad and they don't know how to fix it. Established companies still suffer from the same problems and we get to make fun of them. But heaven forbid you point out the elephant in the room with Tesla.

 

[Sonicks]

No one is discrediting them, simply pointing out the product quality is bad and they don't know how to fix it. Established companies still suffer from the same problems and we get to make fun of them. But heaven forbid you point out the elephant in the room with Tesla.

Fair enough. I see where you're coming from. All the companies you cited earlier do have many more years of experience producing cars however. Ultimately I want to believe that Tesla can compete in every facet of car manufacturing from quality control to pure reliability. I hope they can pull it off.

 

[Atearen]

Those of us who like to fix our own things are in the minority, most people just want their auto to get them from Point A to Point B, and couldn't care less about serviceability. If you want to tinker, tune, or change your own oil, a Tesla's not for you. 99% of the car buying public would be overjoyed if they were told that they never had to get their oil changed, there's a good selling point for EVs right there.

My point wasn't about letting average Joe change his oil, it's about how much they charge for simple repairs:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/05/20/heres-what-7000-of-damage-looks-like-on-a-tesla-model-3/

It sucks when they make hard for other 3rd party shops to repair Teslas at competitive prices, instead they are following the path of John Deere and Apple: monopolizing the repair of their products

 

[bigdogchris]

At that price, they probably repainted the entire car, or close to it. I recently had a fender repainted. The dealer wanted to repaint the fender AND the front door, so the clear coat "matches". I said no and left. Got the job done at a local shop for half the price without painting the door, and guess what, the clear coat matches.

 

[Ocellaris]

At that price, they probably repainted the entire car, or close to it. I recently had a fender repainted. The dealer wanted to repaint the fender AND the front door, so the clear coat "matches". I said no and left. Got the job done at a local shop for half the price without painting the door, and guess what, the clear coat matches.

Difference here is you could pic where they painted your car. With Tesla you can only go to authorized repair places and many local places don’t have the skills to work on a high voltage car safely (if it needs body work).

 

[kandrey89]

My point wasn't about letting average Joe change his oil, it's about how much they charge for simple repairs:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/05/20/heres-what-7000-of-damage-looks-like-on-a-tesla-model-3/

View attachment 85693

It sucks when they make hard for other 3rd party shops to repair Teslas at competitive prices, instead they are following the path of John Deere and Apple: monopolizing the repair of their products

You want fancy technology, but think the car itself when it comes to repair should be like the 1930's vehicle? Ton of sensors or switches to disconnect when replacing one part of the vehicle or another, all of that rolls into labor, and let's not be shy, shops like to upcharge whenever possible and why not on a $60K car?

 

[nutzo]

So they are building at 5,000 car/week.

Hope they are not playing games with the number like MiniScribe did back in 1987
(For those who don't remember, they where packing bricks in hard drive boxes and counting them as inventory)

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

They may have met the 5,000 units per week metric, but they are still behind cumulatively.

 

[EODetroit]

They may have met the 5,000 units per week metric, but they are still behind cumulatively.

The important thing is that it means they can make a profit and won't need additional financing or another secondary stock offering. This means Tesla is over the hump and has established itself permanently. They're going to spend the next year improving production speeds to 10k per week and lowering the cost in which they do it. The stock price will really jump as the profit starts rolling in when this happens.

 

[Showbiz]

Sample size of one, not the greatest way to look at a product.

*Snip



Isn't that how you guys review computer hardware?

 

[Iratus]

I'll be more interested when they've done it 4 weeks in a row.

Supply chain logistics is a bitch of a job. World class capability to do it takes years to establish. If they are JIT then I can almost guarantee that it is, as mentioned earlier in the thread, just a component backlog. Juice your material flow and you can fake speed for a while but the flow restrictions will bite you after a while.

I used to work for Nokia when we were making and selling 14 phones a second. The complexity of the supply chain used to make my head explode.

 

[gunbust3r]

Fast/Good/Cheap pick two. We know they picked fast and didn't lower the prices...

 

[gxp500]

I wouldn’t touch any of this shit until Tesla stop cock blocking people trying to get parts or repair their own cars.

Its like they're copying apple, even disabling features after a crash if it isn't brought back to them to get fixed... crazy, that should be illegal.

 

[katanaD]

My point wasn't about letting average Joe change his oil, it's about how much they charge for simple repairs:

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/05/20/heres-what-7000-of-damage-looks-like-on-a-tesla-model-3/

View attachment 85693

It sucks when they make hard for other 3rd party shops to repair Teslas at competitive prices, instead they are following the path of John Deere and Apple: monopolizing the repair of their products

$125 an hour for repair work is not all that high. and in that example they are saying they need 31 hours of physical repair work to fix it? doesnt sound all that "simple"

 

[cjcox]

Would've liked to seen Elon's face the day he realized that he could be fired (can make all the difference).

 

[Atearen]

$125 an hour for repair work is not all that high. and in that example they are saying they need 31 hours of physical repair work to fix it? doesnt sound all that "simple"

31 hours...

 

[bigdogchris]

31 hours...

OK, maybe you ignored the rest of the thread, but I pointed out a real life example of how a small repair job can become much larger due to having to repair other parts of the car in addition to the damaged pieces.

Let's also not forget this is an insurance job, so who knows what extra fluff was added in as "necessary" work. It's not like this doesn't happen to other manufacturers.

 

[[Spectre]]

*Snip



Isn't that how you guys review computer hardware?

We don't review defect or rework rates.