To meet its self-imposed deadline for the production of its Model 3 sedan, Tesla is aggressively taking risks by making various changes to its facilities. The electric automaker has already made its way past widely popular and long-running automakers, like Ford and GM, in terms of market valuation. And now, it is looking to capture an even larger portion of the market with its affordable Model 3 sedan.
According to a fresh report from Reuters, Elon Musk-led Tesla has imbibed within itself high-risk tolerance and willingness to forego long-standing traditions. This has enabled the company to make its mark in the automotive industry. And now it is looking to further the gap by leapfrogging the Model 3 straight to final production to adhere to its promised deadline. It is skipping the preliminary steps to directly kick start the production of its new variant, which should be seen as a smaller, affordable Model S.
Traditionally, automobile makers are known to order cheaper materials to build prototypes and test out the design and functioning of their vehicles before jumping onto the final production stage. But, Tesla has decided to place an order for permanent, more expensive equipment to drive the production of Model 3 to meet the launch and massive pre-orders. It is already known that the automaker has introduced changes to its Fremont production facilities,
It was already public knowledge that the automaker has started making changes to its Fremont production facilities. But, the same is now confirmed as Tesla has been granted several building permits, twenty-six to be exact, to make modifications to their production facilities. These show that the automaker has set up an assembly line for Model 3 production, which is aimed at high reliability and no hiccups. Musk, as well as the investors, are already betting high on the success of the production line and this had led to an increase in its share price — in after hour trading. This been described in the report as under:
Musk expects the Model 3 rollout to help Tesla deliver five times its current annual sales volume, a key target in the automaker’s efforts to stop burning cash.
To append its production instead of focusing it only on the production of the Model 3, the automaker has ordered another stamping press. But, Elon Musk had previously mentioned that it could prove to the biggest bottleneck in production due to the calibrations it requires to seek out the bugs. He is himself overseeing the installation of some of the operational mechanisms and is also said to have started work on “Tesla automated parking Superchargers.”
While it is true that Tesla won’t be the first automaker to accelerate the production of their vehicle but the company believes they will succeed and have faith in their assembly line. Elon Musk is looking at this like an experiment to see how much time and costs can be extracted by cutting down on the beta testing process. He said, at an investors meeting last month, that the company will be utilizing advanced analytical techniques or computer simulations to push directly into the production phase.
As for the production goals, Tesla has recently picked up a whopping $1.2 billion to support their production and ultimately meet the September deadline. Initially, the company aims to produce about 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week this whole year. This will help the automaker analyze the production set up, single out quirks and fix them for a steady increase in production to 10,000 vehicles a week in 2018. This timeline is most likley also being followed to not liquidate more equity and raise funds again this year.
