Page 41 - ElectriCar Magazine

400,000 in 2018 due to demand. In the Tesla Factory, paint lines for 500,000 automobiles commenced in 2015, and some stamping equipment for the Model 3 was operational by 2016. Tesla bought Grohmann Engineering, experienced in automated manufacturing, in 2017. This acquisition launched Tesla Advanced Automation Germany, which Tesla said would develop manufacturing processes to be used initially in Model 3 production. According to Tesla, the company expected to invest between two-billion and two-point-five billion in capital expenditures ahead of the start of Model 3 production.
After the two Alpha prototypes were shown, Tesla did finish the design. Tesla ordered parts equivalent to 300 Beta prototypes, preparing for development of the assembly line. The company intended to make release candidates for testing prior to actual production. Tesla began building Model 3 prototypes as part of the testing of the vehicle design and manufacturing processes. Tesla said in that initial crash test results had been positive.
In 2016, Tesla said its production timeline was on schedule. Again in 2017, Tesla said that vehicle development, supply chain and manufacturing are on track to support volume deliveries of the Model 3 in the second half of 2017. As of 2017, Tesla planned to ramp up production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week in quarter-four and reach 10,000 vehicles per week in 2018. However, Tesla missed their Q4 production target, as only 2,425 vehicles were
in late 2017 that “Elon Musk needs to stop over-promising and under-delivering”. Prior to a planned shutdown in mid 2018 to further increase production and they then produced more than 2,000 Model 3 vehicles for three straight weeks. Customer deliveries totaled 1,764 units in 2017.
Deliveries totaled 8,182 units in the first-quarter of 2018, 18,449 in the second, rose to 55,840 units in the third. Global deliveries passed the 100,000 unit milestone in October 2018. Sales in the fourth quarter achieved a record of 63,359 units, totaling 146,055 units delivered during the first full year of production, allowing the Model 3 to be the world’s best selling Plug-In Electric car in 2018. Cumulative sales since inception totaled 147,819 units through December 2018. According to Tesla, retail deliveries in Europe are slated to begin in 2020.
The Tesla Model 3 was the world’s top selling Plug-In car in 2018.
During the first half of 2018, the Model 3 was the top selling alternative fuel vehicle in California with 12,674 units, followed by the Toyota Prius conventional hybrid with 10,043 units. The Model 3 became the best selling car by revenue in North America for the months July and August 2018, with monthly sales of US 993 million for August 2018, beating the Toyota Camry at US 765 million, and Honda Accord at US 679 million. By 2018, Bloomberg reported that, in the U.S. market, Tesla Model 3 sales made it the fifth best-selling sedan in the previous quarter, behind the Toyota Camry and Corolla and
produced during the entire 3-month period. 5 months before, Musk claimed on Twitter that Tesla would be able to produce 20,000 Model 3 per month by late the same year. Tesla’s actual production numbers were therefore ninty-Three percent lower than his prediction.
As industry experts had predicted, Tesla did not meet the announced delivery targets. The first delivery was on July 7, 2017, to Musk himself. The first 30 production units were delivered on July 28, 2017.
In mid 2017, Musk forecast at least six months of serious production difficulties. Tesla’s announced goal at that time was to produce 1,500 units in the third-quarter of 2017, increasing to 5,000 per week by end of 2017, but only 260 vehicles were manufactured during the third quarter. The company blamed product bottlenecks but said there were “no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain” and expressed confidence about its ability to resolve the bottlenecks in the near future.
Tesla delivered just 1,542 Model 3 cars in the fourth-quarter of 2017 about 2,900 less than Wall Street estimations, which were already halved previously after Tesla published the company’s third-quarter report. By late 2017, Musk had postponed the target date for manufacturing 5,000 of the vehicles per week from late 2017 to mid 2018. An analyst with Cowan and Company, an investment banking firm, said
JUNE 2020
Honda Civic and Accord models, but ahead of Nissan Sentra and Altima, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Fusion, and Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu models.
U.S. sales of the Model 3 reached the 100,000 unit milestone in 2018, hitting this milestone quicker than any previous model sold in the country. The Model 3 was the top-selling Plug- In Electric car in the U.S. for 12 months in-a-row since 2018, ending 2018 as the best-selling Plug-In with an estimated
Gigafactory One had been intended
to produce battery packs for Model
3 and it was announced in 2017 that
Tesla would also manufacture drive
One. In February 2017, Tesla said that installation of Model 3 manufacturing equipment was underway in the Fremont factory and at Gigafactory One, where in January, production of battery cells for energy-storage products began, which have the same form factor as the cells that will be used in Model 3.
The Model 3 overtook the Model S to become the all-time best selling All-Electric car in the U.S, with 148,046 units sold since inception
units at Gigafactory
all-time record of 139,782 units delivered, the first time a Plug- In car sold more than 100 thousand units in a single year. In 2019, with 148,046 units sold since inception in the American market, the Model 3 overtook the Model S to become the all- time best selling All-Electric car in the U.S.
In May 2018, Consumer Reports Model 3 testing found “big flaws, such as long stopping distances and difficult-to- use controls”, finding the braking distance worse than a Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck, and causing it to not recommend the car. Tesla responded to the claims with concern and, a few days later, released an over-the-air (OTA) update fixing the anti-lock braking algorithm. Consumer Reports, impressed with the prompt and unprecedented brake fix OTA update, verified the improved braking performance and changed its rating to a recommended model.
As production began in 2017, the base Model 3 was announced to have a 50-kWh battery with a range of about 220 miles while the optional 75-kWh battery would have a range of about 310 miles. Chinese version release by Tesla website has a longer 370 mile range. In the event, Tesla did not produce any base Model 3s in 2017 or 2018. The battery uses 2170-size LithiumIon cells which have up to thirty percent higher energy density than the 18650-size cells used in previous Tesla vehicles.
As of 2017, the Model 3 battery pack was made of four
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