As the third quarter of 2021 draws to a close, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that this week will be the “most intense delivery week ever” for the company — reports Electrek. In a short internal email obtained by the publication, Musk said:
“This will be the most intense delivery week ever for Tesla.”
Because Tesla operates on a direct-to-consumer model and doesn’t offload product to third-party dealerships, the company is known to have intense end-of-quarter delivery “pushes” or “waves”.
Adding to these waves is the fact that Tesla works on producing vehicles for export earlier in the quarter, and leaves orders with shorter transit times to customers for later. Employees then have to work super hard to get those vehicles into customers’ hands and make sure those deliveries count for the quarter.
With matters further worsened by the global chip shortage and supply chain issues, Tesla was already expecting the end-of-quarter push for Q3 to be a big one.
In an internal email earlier this month, Musk asked employees to go “super hardcore” to ensure Tesla puts up a decent Q3 delivery number. Employees were quick to act on the request, and the Tesla CEO thanks them for the “hardcore delivery push” in this recent email.
In his email to employees, Musk also alluded to an upcoming reprieve for employees in the future:
“Hopefully, a lot easier next quarter.”
Tesla’s main equalizer on the horizon against its hectic end-of-quarter delivery pushes is Gigafactory Berlin, which is slated for final permit approval in Q4 and will hopefully start piping out delivery-ready cars sometime next month.
Tesla’s massive Berlin production facility will not only give the electric carmaker an edge against its European competition, but will also establish a direct supply route to one of the company’s biggest markets, reducing the need for Gigafactory Shanghai and Tesla’s Fremont Factory to export cars to Europe.
While it will take almost a year for production at Gigafactory Berlin to ramp up, Tesla’s global production capacity will grow substantially as it does. Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory alone has produced 300,000 cars so far in the year.
During a company-wide call back in March, Musk said Tesla has a chance at delivering 1 million cars in 2021, doubling its 500,000 deliveries from last year.
