Tesla says new Texas factory is making 3,000 SUVs a week

Tesla is building 3,000 Model Y SUVs a week at its new Austin, Texas, factory — a sign that the electric-car maker is making up for lost time at the money-losing plant.

Tesla shared the new production figure in a tweet on Thursday. The milestone comes a week after Bloomberg News reported that chief executive officer Elon Musk had asked the head of the company’s China division to get the Austin factory up to speed.

Giga Texas hits 3k Model Y builds/week.

Congrats, Tesla team! 🤘 pic.twitter.com/uhG03gFyba

— Tesla (@Tesla) December 15, 2022

Extrapolated out over a year, that production rate would get Tesla to about 156,000 vehicles, which is still short of the annual target of 250,000 that the company promoted in its third-quarter letter to shareholders.

But it’s a long way from the slow start Tesla experienced in Austin, which was due in part to the company pivoting at the last minute to using older battery cells after it found a new design wasn’t ready for volume production.