SpaceX founder Elon Musk smirks during a press briefing on March 2, 2019. The event followed the successful launch of Demo-1: the first mission to launch Crew Dragon, a commercial spaceship designed for astronauts, into orbit.
- Tesla is racing to deliver cars before the end of the first quarter on March 31.
- Elon Musk told all employees in an email seen by Business Insider that deliveries should be their "top priority."
- As the company ramps up sales in Europe and China in addition to North America, Musk said this is the biggest wave of deliveries in its history.
Elon Musk sent an email to all Tesla employees on Thursday afternoon informing them that car deliveries should be everyone's top priority until the end of the quarter on March 31.
Business Insider viewed a copy of the email, which was sent under the subject line "Vehicle Delivery Help Needed!" It follows a separate email from vice president Sanjay Shah last week asking for employees to once again volunteer for extra shifts delivering vehicles.
"What has made this particularly difficult is that Europe and China are simultaneously experiencing the same massive increase in delivery volume that North America experienced last year," Musk said in the email. In some locations, the delivery rate is over 600% higher than its previous peak!"
Musk also warned that supplier issues in Europe had further complicated the company's delivery situation. Business Insider reported last week that Tesla needed to deliver 30,000 more cars before the end of the quarter to meet internal goals.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the email, this is the "biggest wave in Tesla's history" and "won't be repeated in subsequent quarters." In his unveiling of the Model Y last week, Musk acknowledged that the past year - as Tesla transitioned from "production hell" to "delivery hell" - was one of the most difficult in the company's history.
Here's the full email:
For the last ten days of the quarter, please consider your primary priority to be helping with vehicle deliveries. This applies to everyone. As challenges go, this is a good one to have, as we've built the cars and people have bought the cars, so we just need to get the cars to their new owners!
What has made this particularly difficult is that Europe and China are simultaneously experiencing the same massive increase in delivery volume that North America experienced last year. In some locations, the delivery rate is over 600% higher than its previous peak! This was further exacerbated by supplier shortages of EU spec components and a sticker printing error on our part in China that were only resolved in the past few weeks.
North America is also stressed, as the final month of this quarter is almost all North America builds. Moreover, for the first two weeks of march most cars were sent from our factory in California to the East Coast to ensure arrival before the end of the quarter.
The net result is a massive wave of deliveries needed throughout Europe, China and North America. This is the biggest wave in Tesla's history, but it is primarily a function of our first delivery of mass manufactured cars on two continents simultaneously, and will not be repeated in subsequent quarters.
To help, please contact Sanjay Shah in North America, Robin Ren in China and Ashley Harris in Europe.
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