Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Tesla has accelerated Model 3 production in recent months.
- Elon Musk said Tesla would likely start producing the dual-motor version of the Model 3 in July.
- Musk said the company would have to produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week "before adding complexity that would inhibit production ramp."
- He also said white interiors may become available around the same time.
While Tesla has accelerated production for its Model 3 mass-market sedan in recent months, the company is still only making and delivering one version of the vehicle.
Eventually, the $35,000 version with a standard battery will become available, but for now, customers who have the option to configure their Model 3 can only purchase the long-range version with rear-wheel drive, which starts at $49,000. And those who want the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version were told it would arrive in mid-2018. On Sunday, Musk clarified that timeline on Twitter, saying Tesla would likely start producing the dual-motor Model 3 in July.
Musk was responding to a Twitter user who claimed his Model 3 "has been sitting in the configuration for months waiting on" the dual-motor option and asked when Tesla would start producing it.
Musk replied that the company would have to produce 5,000 Model 3s per week "before adding complexity that would inhibit production ramp," and predicted the dual-motor version would start production in July. He also told a Twitter user who asked when a white interior would become available that it would be subject to "similar timing."
On Tuesday, Tesla said it produced 9,766 Model 3 vehicles during the first quarter and 2,020 during its final week. That fell short of the company's goal of producing 2,500 Model 3s per week by the end of the quarter, but overall Model 3 production during the quarter increased from the fourth quarter of 2017, when Tesla made 2,425 Model 3s.
Tesla had previously hoped to make 5,000 per week by the end of 2017, but has pushed that target back to the end of June.
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