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Tesla announced Tuesday that it produced 80,142 cars in the third quarter, a 50% increase over the second quarter, as the Model 3 sedan began to pull out of its assembly line in larger volumes.
This total includes 53,239 models 3, almost double the number of Tesla in the previous quarter. This means that the company has produced an average of about 4,000 models per week, less than the 5,000 for which Elon Musk, the general manager, insisted.
The increase in production is a rare good news for a company that has been shaken by a succession of disturbing developments in the last two months. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr. Musk in a securities fraud case. Two days later, Mr. Musk had accepted a settlement with the agency.
The case stems from the case of Mr. Musk tweet on August 7th in which he said he intended to turn Tesla into a private company at $ 420 per share and to have "secured financing," a plan that was less detailed than he had suggested. .
The second. is still studying Mr. Musk's earlier statements about the company's production objectives.
Model 3, its most affordable offering to date, is critical to Tesla's success. But while the company has increased the production of models 3, Tesla has encountered a new problem: it does not seem to be able to provide all the cars it manufactures to its customers. Mr Musk called it "the hell of delivery logistics".
A more important test will be whether Tesla will be able to solve its shipping problems in the fourth quarter, analysts said.
"The real question now is whether Tesla can really keep up with this pace, particularly in light of the delivery issues the company has been facing recently," said Jeremy Acevedo, Head of Sectoral Analysis at Edmunds, a company automated data processing.
Tesla reported that 8,048 models 3 and 3,776 other cars were in transit to customers at the end of the third quarter.
"With the stabilization of production, the logistics of delivery and outbound vehicles was in the third quarter," the company said in a statement. "We have made many improvements to these processes throughout the quarter, and we are working to make further improvements in the fourth quarter so that we can evolve successfully."
At the same time, the company noted "the headwinds we face" because of trade tensions between China and the Trump government. Tesla vehicles shipped to China are now subject to a 40% tariff, the company said.
China is the largest market in the world for electric vehicles.
"Taking into account shipping costs and import tariffs, Tesla now operates at a cost disadvantage of between 55% and 60% compared to the same vehicle manufactured in China," the company said.
Tesla is at the beginning of planning a factory in Shanghai.
Musk promised that Tesla would generate profits and generate positive cash flow in the third and fourth quarters, thanks to model 3. However, although the company is manufacturing more cars, delivery problems could hurt its profitability because can only book recipes when he puts his cars in the hands of his customers.
The company needs revenue because it has suffered substantial losses and uses almost $ 1 billion in cash almost every quarter. At the beginning of the third quarter, Tesla had $ 2.2 billion in cash, but it owed $ 3 billion to suppliers. He also had a debt of about $ 11 billion on the balance sheet.
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