Tesla pushes back Model 3 production target for a second time
San Francisco — Tesla has again pushed back a production target for its Model 3 sedan, and shipped fewer of the electric cars than expected, as Elon Musk struggles to mass-manufacture the car he is counting on to grow the company. Tesla now expects to assemble 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of June — delaying that goal by another three months. Tesla delivered 1,550 Model 3s in the final three months of the year, trailing analysts’ average estimate for about 2,900 units in a Bloomberg News survey. Tesla has been blowing through more than $1bn in cash each quarter as it has had trouble scaling up Model 3 output despite having spent heavily on the robots, assembly lines and tooling needed produce them. Pricing for the car starts at $35,000 and it is pivotal to Musk’s bet that mainstream consumers will buy battery-powered vehicles in droves once they become more affordable. The company initially planned to make 5,000 units a week by the end of last year. "Tesla has really lofty goals ...
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