An internal email to employees dated July 9 from Jerome Guillen, President of Automotive at Tesla, said the company is “making preparations” to raise output at its factory in Fremont, California (where we recently interviewed him). “While we can’t be too specific in this email, I know you will be delighted with the upcoming developments,” Guillen said, according to a report by Bloomberg, which claims to have seen a copy of the email.
Tesla Fremont Factory. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica
Now why would a company facing a slowdown in demand — as claimed by multiple industry observers and stock analysts — be ramping up production? The answer is, it wouldn’t — not if its management consists of sane people making rational business decisions. So much for the anti-Tesla FUDsters.
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— CleanTechnica (@cleantechnica) July 10, 2019
The email went on to say the company has “hit new records in all production lines for output and efficiency” in the most recent quarter, both in Fremont and in Nevada, and that “quality is also reaching record highs.” Gigafactory 1 in Nevada is where battery cell production takes place and many motors and drivetrain components are manufactured.
Tesla is on pace to produce up to 400,000 electric vehicles this year and says it intends to see that number increase considerably in years to come. Part of any increase will come from the new Gigafactory 3 being built outside Shanghai, China. According to Guillen’s email, many parts of the new factory are already completed.
The body of a Tesla Model 3 is welded in Tesla’s Fremont Factory. Image credit: Chanan Bos | CleanTechnica
“The Stamping, Body, Paint, and General Assembly lines in China are well underway and hitting records in both line design and fabrication,” his message said. If in fact that factory begins volume production in the fourth quarter of this year as Tesla expects, Tesla could produce more than a half million electric cars this year.
No one is allowed to speculate on such things because the eagle-eyed examiners at the SEC are closely monitoring the situation to make not too much good news comes from the company lest grandmothers in Topeka get too excited and invest all their life savings in Tesla stock. Why they don’t spend their time working to put oil company executives in prison for bilking the public of billions of dollars over the last several decades is a great mystery. The difference in how Tesla is treated and how the oil industry is treated by regulators says a lot about how the US government operates to favor some at the expense of others.
Nobody wants to buy electric cars, executives at major auto companies cry. What they mean is nobody wants to buy the crap-can electric cars they are producing. Yet millions of people want to buy a Tesla, apparently. Elon Musk has long urged other companies to build compelling electric cars, not the weak-kneed offerings most have offered the public to date. He is still waiting.
Related exclusives from CleanTechnica:
- Jerome — The Man, The Myth, The Tesla Super-Engineer — #CleanTechnica Interview
- Our Interview With Tesla President Jerome Guillen, Part Deux
- The World Inside Tesla Is Completely Different From The Media’s Portrayal Of Tesla
- Tesla Fremont Factory Tour Part 3 — Body Shop & General Assembly #CleanTechnicaTV
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- Tesla Financials, Wall Street, Elon Sleeping Under The Desk — CleanTech Talk With Ross Gerber, Part 3
- Tesla Fremont Factory Insights, Tesla Innovation, & Tesla Communications — CleanTech Talk with Ross Gerber, Part 2
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