When Tesla announced the Model 3, it seemed that Elon Musk finally found a way to offer an electric car that middle-class drivers can afford. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned and much like it happened with the Model X, production of the Model 3 suffered a few delays. Come April 2018, and Tesla has halted production once again in order to improve automation and address bottlenecks in the production process. The action comes a few days after Elon Musk tweeted that "excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake" and that "humans are underrated."

Although the automaker said, in a statement to The Verge, that the pause "is not unusual and is, in fact, common in production ramps like this," it raises concerns that Tesla might not be able to reach its target of 5,000 cars per week at the end of the first half of 2018. Tesla is currently producing around 2,000 Model 3s per week. Its target for the first quarter of the year included 2,500 examples per week.

This is the second time Tesla has halted Model 3 production, and that's just one of its issues. Following reports that unveiled that Tesla purposely underreports worker injuries to bolster its safety record, the company released an aggressive statement in which it labeled the investigation as "an ideologically motivated attack by an extremist organization." The magazine that published the story, Reveal, was just named a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting.

All told, while Tesla is trying to tell us that everything is working according to plan, it's pretty obvious that the company is actually under a lot of stress for not meeting its targets. Musk's firm is also under more scrutiny than ever, and some customers aren't exactly happy about the delays, so Tesla has a lot of pressure to deal with right now. It's hard to predict what will happen in the immediate future, but hopefully, Tesla will manage to ramp up Model 3 production. With more products underway, Musk needs to find solutions fast.

References

Tesla Model 3

Read our full review on the 2018 Tesla Model 3.

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