Tesla production update

Tesla just issued its latest production update. In the third quarter, they manufactured over 430 000 vehicles. This was a slight decline from the prior three months, although still much higher than the same period in 2022.

Their target to produce 1.8 million vehicles in 2023 remains unchanged. That's a massive achievement for a relatively young company.

The slight slackening of the pace was caused by planned downtimes for factory upgrades. They made some notable improvements to the Model 3 cars coming off the line in Shanghai.

On that note, I was interested to see this story a few weeks back, about how Tesla plans to die cast the whole underbody of their EVs in one piece, rather than about 400 parts in a conventional car. The moulds are made with 3D-printers.

This innovation could halve production costs. They already use huge presses to mould the front and rear structures of Model Y cars.

In my view, internal combustion engines are on their way out. They are dirty, expensive to build, require lots of unionized workers, and are complex to maintain. As EV batteries get better, they are becoming more cost-effective to drive.

I just bought an EV myself (a Mercedes EQA) and I'm using my rooftop solar installation to charge it up on the weekends. FU Eskom, and FU too City of Joburg. It's a joy to drive.