Tesla Model 3 Production Was Temporarily Suspended Last Month

Mar. 13, 2018 8:11 AM ET by Martin Bigg / 14 Comments

Will Tesla hit its target of producing 2,500 Model 3s a week by the end of the March?

To say that the Tesla Model 3 has been plagued with production issues is an understatement. Things are so bad that the automaker has consistently failed to meet production targets to fulfill the massive backlog of outstanding orders. As a result, the initial target of producing 5,000 cars a week by the end of March has been pushed back to June. A report by Bloomberg now reveals that production of the Model 3 was temporarily suspended at the company's Fremont plant between February 20-24.

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According to the report, production was paused to "improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks." "Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1," a Tesla spokesperson told Bloomberg. "These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this." The Model 3 was supposed to be a pivotal part of Tesla's strategy of bringing EVs to the masses, but increasing production has taken a lot longer than expected.

Currently, Tesla is aiming to produce 2,500 Model 3s per week by the end of March before ramping up production to 5,000 a week by the end of June. It's difficult to judge whether Tesla will meet its March target for the Model 3, but hopefully the downtime has allowed engineers to rectify any issues with the company's system and speed up production over the next few weeks to make the target more achievable. Time will ultimately tell.

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Tesla Model 3 Production Was Temporarily Suspended Last Month

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Tesla Model 3 Production Was Temporarily Suspended Last Month

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