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The Department of Justice is investigating whether Tesla has misled investors about the production of its Model 3 sedan, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the publication, the Department of Justice is trying to determine whether the automaker made predictions in 2017 on the production of Model 3 that it knew they were not able to achieve. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk m said in july 2017, Tesla could manufacture 20,000 models 3 per month from December 2017, compared to 2,685 model 3 vehicles in 2017.
"Earlier this year, Tesla received a voluntary request for Department of Justice documents regarding its public guidelines for the Model 3 ramp, and we cooperated to respond to them," said a Tesla representative. "We have not received any subpoenas, requests for testimony, or other official proceedings, and the Department of Justice has not asked for additional documents on this subject for months."
"When we started the model 3 production ramp, we were aware of the difficulty of this task," added the representative. "In the end, given the difficulties we had not anticipated in this one-of-a-kind production ramp, it took us six months longer than planned to meet our forecast of 5,000 units per week. "
The GM did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
In October 2017, the Journal reported that when the production of Model 3 began in July 2017, the Tesla factory body shop in Fremont, California, was not fully functional. It would not have been fully installed before September 2017.
Tesla has reached the late target of producing 5,000 models 3 in one week at the end of June 2018 and, earlier this month, Tesla announced it produced 53,239 models 3 in the third quarter. 55,000. The automaker manufactured 5,300 models 3 during the last week of the third quarter, less than the goal of 6,000 weeklies that it was set for the end of the month d & # 39; August.
Musk acknowledged in April that Tesla had been attempting to automate too many production jobs in the Fremont factory and would use more human workers in the assembly process.
The GM has reportedly been investigating Musk's comments on Twitter in August about the possibility of taking Tesla in private. These comments led to a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was settled in September. Under the terms of the settlement, Musk is to step down as chairman of the Tesla board of directors for a period of three years and pay a $ 20 million fine.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the DOJ's investigation has "intensified" in recent weeks as FBI agents apparently contacted former Tesla employees, who had already received subpoenas and summonses. asked them to testify.
Musk seemed to express his frustration about the newspaper's story via Twitter on Friday afternoon, responding to a Twitter user who suggested that the story was motivated by the desire to lower the course of the newspaper. Tesla's action.
"Where is the SEC when the WSJ publishes old information only to distort stock prices and hurt investors?" @You're here@mayemusk. I would like the SEC to ask the reporter why he published this information at 2 pm ET, "said the Twitter user.
"Good question," Musk responded.
The emphasis placed by the GM on the production of Model 3 had not yet been reported.
You can read Tesla's full statement below:
Earlier this year, Tesla received a voluntary request for Department of Justice documents regarding its public guidelines for the Model 3 ramp, and we cooperated to respond. We have not received any subpoenas, requests for testimony, or any other formal process, and the Department of Justice has not requested any further documentation for months.
When we started the model 3 production ramp, we were aware of the difficulty of this task, openly explaining that we could not go as fast as our least-lucky or least-performing supplier and that we were going into "the 39, hell of production. In the end, given the difficulties we had not anticipated in this unique production ramp, it took us six months longer than expected to meet our forecast of 5,000 units per week. Tesla's philosophy has always been to set truthful goals, not goals without goals that we would surpass, or unrealistic goals we could never achieve. Although Tesla is criticized when he is slow to reach a goal, one must not forget that Tesla has achieved many goals that have been questioned by most. We are extremely proud of the efforts made by society as a whole to break this difficult road and achieve mass production.
Read the full story of the Wall Street Journal here.
Do you have a Tesla news tip? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
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