Advertisement

Tesla ramps up production to meet aggressive delivery goals

Musk: "What we've got coming is going to blow people's minds."

REUTERS/James Glover II

In Tesla's second quarter earnings release (PDF), the company announced it had completed the design phase on the long-awaited Model 3 while also missing the mark on delivery numbers for current production models. Although CFO Jason Wheeler said on an accompanying conference call that Tesla is "clearly disappointed" about those deliveries, CEO Elon Musk was characteristically upbeat when talking about the future of his company as it launches part two of its Master Plan.

Despite the low delivery numbers, Tesla has ramped up production to 2,000 vehicles per week, cranking out a total of 14,402 vehicles in the second quarter for a 43 percent increase over the same period last year. (About two-thirds of those were Model S sedans, while the remaining 4,638 were Model X SUVs.) In total, Tesla has produced 18,345 electric vehicles through June. While still short of their goal to produce 20,000 cars in the first half of the year, Musk and company feel confident that the increase in production capacity will help them deliver another 50,000 vehicles by the end of 2016. As for the Model 3, Musk explained that vehicle's planned production date of July 1st, 2017 will likely get pushed back slightly due to issues with suppliers, but not significantly.

Production notes aside, Musk also said he was looking forward to sharing what the company has planned for Autopilot and other autonomous systems. "Full autonomy is going to come a lot faster than anyone thinks it will. And what we've got coming is going to blow people's minds," Musk said. "I mean, it blows my mind."