Exactly three months ago, Elon Musk sent a euphorically sounding message to world. The multibillionaire and founder of electric car manufacturer Tesla was also close to implementing one of his most important projects to date. Finally, first specimens of Model 3 should be delivered, a car that fans of company waited for months. More than 1500 copies of Model 3, Musk announced at time, were to leave factory halls in September. And already in December he wanted to increase production to 20 000 vehicles per month.
On Monday, Tesla had to take his new model to a small fact check-and it was relatively disappointing: Tesla was able to produce just 260 copies of its hopeful carrier in third quarter, a close fifth of goal of Musk In July alone for September. As company said, start-up difficulties and bottlenecks in production are responsible for problems. But y wanted to get a grip on matter in short term.
The Tesla stock responded to disappointing figures with losses of at times 1.5 percent, later recovered. Musk had indicated several times that production of Model 3 is a major challenge. As so often, 46-year-old has an ambitious plan. Already in coming year, half a million cars will leave factory halls of Californian car manufacturer. The expectations of company are accordingly great. More than 500 000 customers have pre-ordered a Model 3 and paid for it. Tesla wants to offer new vehicle an electric car for mass market for first time. The Model 3 is already available at prices from 35 000 dollars, which is about half of starting price of a Model S, Tesla's top brand.
Expectations of cheaper electric car have made a significant contribution to fact that company's stock market price rose by 60 percent this year alone. At times, Tesla was worth more than some of major US car manufacturers. On 10 April, Musks overtook even General Motors (GM), most valuable car company in country to date. Why this event made so many headlines also reveals a look at orders of magnitude: Tesla produced 84 000 cars last year, General Motors more than ten million- 120 fold. Neverless, investors were more likely to be swept away by optimism of Tesla, rar than relying on corporations like GM, who earn bulk of ir money with internal combustion engines.
It is also merit of Musk that incumbent car manufacturers are slowly redirecting and investing more in development of e-cars. While Tesla had to disappoint his investors on Monday, stolid rivals announced new plans. For example, GM announced that it would want to bring 20 new e-car models and fuel cell vehicles to market within five years. Ford shared a team for worldwide development of e-cars. The German car manufacturers, who are also under pressure because of diesel affair, want to invest more money in development of e-cars. So Volkswagen announced in September to offer up to 2030 each of its models also with electric motor.
Date Of Update: 04 October 2017, 12:11
