Tesla to boost production, hiring in Fremont
Less than a week after reporting quarterly vehicle sales numbers that blew past expectations, Tesla appears ready to crank up the production line at its massive Fremont plant.
In an email sent to employees, Jerome Guillen, the company’s automotive president, said Tesla was “making preparations” to boost production levels in Fremont as it is seeing growing demand for its Model 3 sedan in particular. Bloomberg reported that it saw a copy of Guillen’s email, which was sent to Tesla employees late Tuesday.
Guillen’s comments come on the heels of Tesla saying a week ago that its secondquarter deliveries — a term the company uses to refer to sales — reached a record 95,200 vehicles. The numbers exceeded Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates of approximately 91,000 cars, and erased many fears about Tesla’s sales slumping after the company in April reported disappointing first-quarter vehicle deliveries.
The Model 3 remains Tesla’s most-successful vehicle,
and the company said it delivered 77,550 cars during the quarter that ended in June. Tesla’s Model S and Model X deliveries for the quarter totaled 17,650 vehicles combined.
According to Bloomberg, Guillen told Tesla employees
that while he couldn’t get into specifics about what the company has planned for its Fremont plant, “I know you will be delighted with the upcoming developments.”
Those could include an increasing in hiring. In addition to priming the pump for an expansion of Tesla’s production, Guillen urged employees to “tell your friends and neighbors
that we have lots of exciting new positions open, both in Fremont and at Giga,” with Giga being a reference to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, where the company produces batteries for Tesla cars and power systems.
Dan Ives, managing director with Wedbush Securities, called the likelihood of Tesla increasing its vehicle production “another
positive step in the right direction” after the company had been “stuck at neutral the last few months.”
If Tesla does significantly boost the number of cars it plans to produce in Fremont, it would suggest that the company has done a complete about-face after CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year that the “road ahead” for the company looked difficult, and that
Tesla would cut approximately 7% of its workforce.
Tesla has said it expects to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 cars this year. The report of Guillen’s upbeat production outlook gave investors enthusiasm Wednesday: The company’s shares rose almost 2%, to $233.97.