Tesla Motors has reportedly built around 80,000 vehicles during the third quarter of this year, with 53,000 of them being the popular Model 3 sedan. If accurate, this would mean a production growth rate of 187 percent over the second quarter production results.
These figures are according to Tesla fan site Electrek which cites a source close to the automaker, with up to a two percent margin of error. Allegedly, an end-of-quarter effort by the automaker resulted in over 2,000 vehicles built in the final 60 hours of the quarter, with the total reaching almost that of the previous two quarters combined.
A reported 53,000 of the vehicles produced are the company’s mass-market Model 3 sedan, whose production reached the 5,000-per-week benchmark at the end of Q2. It appears that future production goals are reportedly 6,000 per week and eventually 10,000, which CEO Elon Musk targeted as a company goal by the end of 2018.
Overall production and delivery still fell short of Musk’s target of doubling Q2 production in Q3, as he outlined in a blog post in early September. Manufacturing volume is likely to rise further in the near future because of upgrades to Tesla’s battery-building “Gigafactory.” Its technological partner Panasonic stated that a 30 percent increase in battery production capacity—believed to be Tesla’s weakest link—was on the way by the end of 2018, and ahead of schedule.
Deliveries too have become a focus for Tesla, with Musk claiming the company is on the verge of profitability. Getting cars to customers as fast as the automaker can build them was reportedly important to getting Tesla into its first black quarter in company history. Manufacturing and delivery details for Q3 are expected to be released by Tesla as soon as Monday.