Tesla Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said Tesla is on track to hit its goal of making 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of June.
- Mark Truby, Ford's vice president of communications, responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday after Musk compared a Ford factory to a morgue.
- "I think there's a good vibe - I think the energy is good; go to Ford, it looks like a morgue," Musk said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
- Truby alluded to the new production line Tesla built under a temporary, tent-like structure and took a veiled shot at Tesla's production issues in his response.
- "No doubt the vibe is funky in that 'makeshift tent,' but it's not bad either across the street at the
#FordRouge plant where a high quality, high-tech F-150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds like clockwork. Come check it out@elonmusk," Truby said on Twitter.
Mark Truby, Ford's vice president of communications, responded to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday after Musk compared a Ford factory to a morgue.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday, Musk discussed Tesla's efforts to reach its goal of making 5,000 Model 3 sedans per week by the end of June. Musk said he felt good about the "vibe" and "energy" at Tesla and compared the company to Ford.
"I think there's a good vibe - I think the energy is good; go to Ford, it looks like a morgue," Musk said.
On Thursday, Truby responded to Musk on Twitter, alluding to the new production line Tesla built under a temporary, tent-like structure and taking a veiled shot at Tesla's production issues.
"No doubt the vibe is funky in that 'makeshift tent,' but it's not bad either across the street at the #FordRouge plant where a high quality, high-tech F-150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds like clockwork. Come check it out @elonmusk," he tweeted.
Tesla recently built a new vehicle assembly line outside of its factory in Fremont, California. The new line is housed in an open-air structure that Musk referred to on Twitter as "a giant tent." Musk said the assembly line was built in three weeks with "minimal resources" and that he preferred the open-air structure to the factory building.
The new assembly line comes as Tesla seeks to ramp up production for the Model 3. The company has repeatedly missed production goals for the vehicle, but during Tesla's annual shareholder meeting on June 5, Musk said it was on track to hit its goal of making 5,000 Model 3s a week by the end of the month.
The company has made about 30,000 Model 3s this year, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider and confirmed by two Tesla employees. A person familiar with Model 3 production told Business Insider that Tesla had made around 6,000 Model 3s this month, as of June 19.
During Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings call in February, Musk said he wanted Tesla's factories to give the company a long-term advantage over its competitors and made a reference to Ford's River Rouge factory, which, during the 20th century, demonstrated Ford's desire to vertically integrate vehicle production.
Tesla has attempted to increase the amount of automation at its factories, but Musk said the company had introduced too much automation into its production process in April.
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