We’re deep in a “production hell,” Elon Musk says.
Wait for a little More, Dear Friends – Elon Musk
The unveiling of the truck called Tesla Semi aka Big Rig has been delayed for the second time this year. The all-electric semi-truck unveiling was originally scheduled for Oct. 26 in Hawthorne, California. Home to the automaker’s design studio and the billionaire entrepreneur’s other company, SpaceX. Reuters in August reported. That the truck would have a working range of 200-300 miles.
Tesla strived to play down any long-term risks to the company’s targets. When it published delivery numbers on Monday. That showed output continuing to rise but ‘bottlenecks’ preventing it meeting its Model 3 targets. The company has so far delivered just 220 Model 3 cars and produced 260 during the current quarter. It has targeted 1,500 sedans in this quarter. And expanding the production to 5,000 a week by the end of the year.
Elon Musk announced the delay via Twitter (the trend seems to catch on). He later said the company is deep in “production hell”. One of his go-to terms to describe the ramp-up of the Model X SUV and now the Model 3 car. Elon Musk’s comments came after the close of stock trading on Friday. The company’s shares fell 0.8 percent in extended trading. In response to a Tesla customer asking if he would get his car delivered this year, Elon Musk tweeted, “December will be a big month. So probably. But it is impossible to be certain right now.” Elon Musk also said Tesla would reschedule the unveiling of its semi-truck to Nov. 16 as it focuses on fixing production issues tied to Model 3 and increases battery production for Puerto Rico.
Restoring Power Grid – Puerto Rico
In a tweet on Thursday, Elon Musk said he believes Tesla could rebuild the country’s power grid with batteries and solar power. Just over 10 percent of the island currently has power. And Puerto Rican officials have said it could take four to six months to restore power to some households. Responding to a tweet asking if Tesla could help, Elon Musk answered:
The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too. Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2017
Tesla has done similar projects to provide power in Hawaii and American Samoa. But those were small-scale projects. He also hit out at installers who were charging premiums to install the firm’s battery pack on the island. He promised to address the issue. Elon Musk also said Tesla was ‘sending experienced installers from the continental US to hire & train local team as fast as possible.’