Home » car reviews » Tesla Still Finalizing Model three s Design, Faces Potential Roadblocks to Production Growth – News – Car and Driver, Car and Driver Blog

Tesla Still Finalizing Model three s Design, Faces Potential Roadblocks to Production Growth – News – Car and Driver, Car and Driver Blog

Tesla Still Finalizing Model Trio’s Design, Faces Potential Roadblocks to Production Growth

As we’ve reported before, Tesla Motors is, financially at least, on stable footing for now as it prepares to significantly ramp up production with its very first “volume” model, the Model three EV. That doesn’t mean, however, that Tesla doesn’t face some choppy seas going forward, a notion that the company shined a harsh light on in its very first quarterly financial filing of 2016, wherein it details numerous potential roadblocks to achieving its production goals and even to completing the Model three on time.

The fattest revelation in Tesla’s SEC filings is that the Model Three, which debuted as a accomplish, drivable prototype last month at a flashy event in California, isn’t finished yet. As Tesla puts it: “Final designs for the Model three are not yet accomplish.” The reasons for the design not yet being frozen, despite the Model Three’s production being scheduled to begin in about a year and a half, aren’t explicitly mentioned. Tesla does note that “various aspects of the Model three component procurement and manufacturing plans have not yet been determined,” and that it is still working with its suppliers and on the development of its own “efficient, automated, low-cost manufacturing capabilities, processes and supply chains necessary to support [the Model Three’s production volumes].” Keep in mind that, for most vehicles, part designs are as influenced by artists’ pens as they are by design engineers and manufacturing limitations; if the assembly processes haven’t been locked in, then neither have the parts’ final spec.

The Model Trio’s incomplete design is but one hurdle along the road to Tesla cranking out 500,000 cars annually, a plan that relies powerfully on the lower-cost Model Three. Anyone who has followed Tesla Motors’ gestation from startup to fledgling automaker knows that the company hasn’t had the best track record of delivering promises on time. The Model S and Model X were both delayed, and the Model three very well could suffer the same fate . Tesla states that “We may practice delays in realizing our projected timelines and cost and volume targets for the production, launch, and ramp of our Model three vehicle.” It cites a host of reasons, from its Gigafactory battery plant not being ready, to the production lines for the three not being ended in time, to a planned seventy retail stores and service centers failing to materialize in the next year or so.

In spite of the potential roadblocks, Tesla boastfully reiterated in its SEC filing its fresh plan, announced just this month, to shove up its 500,000-car production purpose (an annual figure that will include Model S, Model X, and Model three production) by two years from two thousand twenty to 2018. As Tesla points out, moving its timeline forward toughly doubles its previous growth plan, which will require a claimed 50-percent increase in capital expenditure over the $1.Five billion it had originally earmarked for calendar-year 2016. The road map is nothing if not ambitious, particularly in light of Tesla’s current sales. Despite having only sold a little over 22,000 vehicles last year, the automaker is hoping to increase production in order to shove out 80,000 to 90,000 copies of the Model S and Model X by year’s end.

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