Tesla went through a tough go of it in 2017 hitting multiple snags with the Model 3 deliveries, disappointing mightily, but in the end, it delivered a new record number of vehicles in the year.
On Wednesday, Tesla announced that it delivered 101,312 vehicles in 2017. That is a 33-percent increase over 2016, marking a new record for the Palo Alto car company. In the fourth quarter alone, Tesla delivered 29,870 cars, a 27-percent jump over the same period in 2016.
But much of that success in 2017 was no thanks to the Model 3. Of the record delivered in 2017, only 1,550 were Model 3s. Time and time again, Tesla missed its Model 3 production goal in 2017, and that won’t be changing soon.
During the announcement, Tesla revealed its weekly production goal of 2,500 per week for the Model 3 is still set for the first quarter, but the loftier goal of 5,000 has been pushed back to the second quarter. That could possibly mean Model 3 full scale production won’t be reached until June.
Originally, Tesla aimed to ramp up Model 3 production to 5,000 by December 2017. That did not go as planned, thus the scaled back expectations.
The end goal of producing 10,000 Model 3’s a week has been postponed indefinitely. With thousands of customers waiting in line for a Model 3, it sounds as if they might have to wait a little longer. At this point, Tesla knows it can’t stop failing on its delivery promises and has decided to scale back expectations. That is probably for the best.
