Musk’s pedal to the metal on Model 3

Elon Muskspent his 47th birthday on Thursday in Tesla’s California plant, prodding workers to hit his production target of 5,000 Model 3 autos this week.

While the CEO has until Saturday to achieve some variation of the goal — actual units would be nice, but a 5,000 run rate extrapolated for the week could suffice — employees at the Fremont plant are predicting the company will miss the target. That would count as the third time Musk has made, and missed, such a prediction.

One 12-hour shift at the plant produced 210 cars — while a second pumped out 305, according to Reuters, which interviewed line workers at the plant.

To hit the 5,000 mark, each 12-hour shift would have to produce an average of just over 350 cars.

Reuters also found a worker who took issue with Tesla’s new outdoor tented assembly line — the one Musk praised in a tweet this week for having “slightly higher quality than the more traditional assembly line.”

The few cars coming out of the tent— a setup the worker called a “makeshift area” — often need to be reworked, the unidentified employee said.

Tesla has declined to comment on its Model 3 output this week, saying it will provide an update next week.

But that didn’t muzzle Musk, who responded to analyst expectations that Tesla would again fall short of its target by e-mailing his staff: “They are in for a rude awakening.”

The CEO also caught flak for disparaging a competitor in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, which quoted Musk as saying: “I think the energy is good; go to Ford, it looks like a morgue.”

Ford communications VP Mark Truby shot back in a tweet: “No doubt the vibe is funky in that ‘makeshift tent,’ but it’s not bad either across the street at the #FordRouge plant.”