Tesla’s chief engineer Doug Field left the company last week, according to a filing with the SEC. Field had been on a leave of absence since May. The news, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, came on the same day that Tesla announced it barely met CEO Elon Musk’s goal of making 5,000 Model 3 sedans in the final week of the second financial quarter of 2018. “Tesla would like to thank Doug for his hard work over the years and for everything he has done for Tesla,” the company said in its SEC filing. His last day was June 27, according to the announcement. Field is one of dozens of executives who have left the company over the last few years. But he was a high profile presence at Tesla. He was hired away from Apple, where he had most recently served as the vice president of Mac hardware engineering. He also spent a number of years working for Segway and Ford. At Tesla, Field was in charge of the company’s vehicle programs. This past March, … [Read more...] about Tesla lost its chief engineer just before hitting Elon Musk’s Model 3 goal
Model 3 news
Tesla Finally Starts to Climb Out of Model 3 Production Hell
When Tesla launched the Model 3 last summer, CEO Elon Musk warned his factory workers that the race to scale up its manufacturing capacity and meet massive demand for the most anticipated car ever would plunge them into "production hell." Nearly a year on, it's clear that while Musk hasn't found his way back to the surface just yet. But at least, it seems, he's headed in the right direction. Production figures for the first three months of the year, released today, show that in the last seven days, Tesla made 2,020 Model 3 sedans. That’s just a bit short of the 2,500 a week Musk was aiming for by this point, and it was only for one week of the quarter, but it’s a large improvement over earlier efforts. Total production over the quarter was 9,766 Model 3s, an average of 800 per week. The increase in production will come as a relief to those patient Tesla enthusiasts on the waiting list though, as will news that the boss has taken over direct control of production. He's back … [Read more...] about Tesla Finally Starts to Climb Out of Model 3 Production Hell
Elon Musk takes charge of Tesla Model 3 production
Elon Musk announced via Twitter that he'd be taking over Tesla Model 3 production from former Apple exec Doug Field.This news comes as no surprise given Tesla's woes of late, with Model 3 production numbers being lower than anticipated, downgraded credit, slipping stock prices and a recent Autopilot-related fatal Model X crash.Field is being reassigned to the vehicle design team, according to Musk, where Musk says his talents would be better put to use. Field has been instrumental in his work at Tesla since coming on board in 2013. Currently, based on estimates, Model 3 production is around 20 percent below what it should be based on goals outlined during the most recent quarterly earnings call. The hope was that a new manufacturing line at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada would remove one of the production bottlenecks keeping the Model 3 from being produced at scale.In addition to delays in manufacturing, some owners who have received their Model 3s have been less than enthused with the … [Read more...] about Elon Musk takes charge of Tesla Model 3 production
Tesla Model 3 production briefly suspended for planned update
Brief pauses in production are not unprecedented in the automotive industry, so a recent four-day halt in Tesla's Model 3 line shouldn't scare the pants off anyone.Tesla idled production at its Model 3 assembly facility in Fremont, California for four days in February. According to Tesla, which confirmed the downtime, it used this time to "improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates," a Tesla spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this."Improving Model 3 production has been a bit of a sore spot for Elon Musk's EV venture. The automaker had originally planned to produce 5,000 vehicles per week by the end of 2017, but that figure has been pushed back several times, now hoping for the end of June. Tesla itself pointed out "the difficulty of accurately forecasting specific production rates" in its Q4 2017 shareholder letter, and Musk has never been shy about admitting … [Read more...] about Tesla Model 3 production briefly suspended for planned update
Tesla Model 3 release date, news and features
Update: The Model 3 has hit a production bottleneck, meaning that it has fallen far behind the estimates that Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally predicted for delivery. In a series of tweets Musk originally claimed that by December of 2017 the Tesla plant would be producing 20,000 cars a month, but presently only 260 of the cars have actually made it out of the doors. In a phone call to members of the press, Musk pushed back his estimation of 15,000 cars a month to early 2018.Original story continues below...Tesla was founded 13 years ago and shipped its first car in 2008 – the Roadster. At a base price of $109,000 (£86,950, AU$191,888), it was a long shot away from Elon Musk's vision of an affordable electric vehicle (EV).It took four years before the first Model S reached buyers, which now starts at $70,000 (£50,000, AU$97,245) before incentives and is still not very cheap.Now that the Model S and X are out the door, Tesla unveiled its first affordable car – … [Read more...] about Tesla Model 3 release date, news and features