Tesla Once Again Promises Model 3 Production Ramp-Up

Tesla’s good at making promises and breaking them. The California automaker is talking big once again, after taking a record loss of $675 million for last quarter. I guess the two go hand-in-hand.

The financial losses were announced after Tesla launched a Roadster into space, via the latest SpaceX rocket. It’s a great publicity stunt, one that people think is fake, but it’s a far cry from actually delivering all those Model 3s people want.

Speaking of the Model 3, Tesla put in its quarterly financial report that it should be rolling 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of the second quarter. That sounds really impressive, until you realize this is déjà vu. Tesla made that same projection twice already, but hasn’t gotten anywhere near accomplishing it.

As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Elon Musk included a personal note to shareholders, assuring them 2018 “will be a transformative year for Tesla, with a high level of operational scaling.” That’s some big talk, but this is coming from the same guy who’s gunning to populate Mars, so it’s par for the course.

I hate being such a skeptic, but when an automaker makes a production projection twice, then falls way short of it, being skeptical is only natural. Translation: I’ll believe it when Tesla actually makes 5,000 Model 3s. Even more impressive will be if the cars don’t fall apart while being driven down the road.