After ramping up the hype for electric vehicles during the launch of its Model 3, Tesla is encountering some production bottlenecks that are causing problems in delivering units of the new sedan. The company has missed its third quarter goal for the Model 3 by a large margin.
This summer, the company projected that 1,500 Model 3 cars will be built in the third quarter. However, the company was only able to deliver 220 Model 3 units. The company cited delays at its manufacturing plants as a major contributor to the bottleneck.
"Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at high rate, a handful have taken longer to activate than expected," Tesla said in a report from CNBC.
However, the company noted that the setbacks are not indicative of a vital flaw in the supply chain. "It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain," the company said confidently. "We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term."
Although the Model 3 has encountered some delays, Tesla was still able to deliver over 26,000 vehicles in the third quarter, thanks to the strong performance of the Model S and Model X. The total number of delivered vehicles is equivalent to a 4.5 percent increase from its delivery numbers during the same time last year.
This means that if the Model 3 productions finally ramps up as the company has intended, Tesla might be looking at a big growth spurt in terms of manufactured cars.
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has previously announced that the Model 3 production should reach 5,000 cars per week before the year ends, and 10,000 per week by the end of next year.
