Elon Musk shared a video Sunday of the Tesla Model 3 assembly line. The video shows automated robots working at a welding station inside Tesla’s Fremont factory.
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The video follows reports from several outlets including the Wall Street Journal that the Model 3 is being partly built by hand while machinery to manufacture the car is completed. Tesla has admitted to a production bottleneck and circulated a statement saying manual assembly is not unusual for automakers.
This reporting is fundamentally wrong and misleading. We are still in the beginning of our production ramp, but every Model 3 is being built on the Model 3 production line, which is fully installed, powered on, producing vehicles, and increasing in automation every day. However, every vehicle manufacturing line in the world has both manual and automated processes, including the Model S and Model X line today. Contrary to the Journal’s reporting, this is not some revelation. As we’ve always acknowledged, it will take time to fine-tune the line for higher volumes, but as we have also said, there are no fundamental issues with Model 3 production or its supply chain, and we are confident in addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term. We are simply working through the S-curve of production that we drew out for the world to see at our launch event in July. There’s a reason it’s called production hell.
Tesla reported production of just 260 of a planned 1,500 Model 3s in the third quarter.