Tesla Says It Will Need 'Giga-Factory' to Meet Production Goal

TeslaTeslaUnited States of America, 2003 > present4 models
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released its third quarter financial details on November 5, and among the details about sales and financial results, founder Elon Musk claims that the company will have to build a lithium-ion battery factory equal to “all lithium ion production in the world today” in order to reach its goal of selling 500,000 cars a year.

Musk announced an expanded deal with Panasonic to supply more batteries in the future and says: “We're in the process of figuring that out. There might need to be some giga-factory built."

In the third quarter from July to September, Tesla total revenue was $431 million in Q3, up 6% from the previous quarter. Net income was a loss of $38 million Selling EV credits accounted for $10 million in Q3, compared to $51 million in Q2.

Tesla sold 5,500 Model STesla Model SUnited States of America, 2012 > present7 versions
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cars worldwide in Q3. Over 1,000 cars went to Europe. It is increasing production to cope with expected higher 2014 demand and estimates it will build over 6,000 cars in Q4. Total estimated Model S production for 2013 is 21,500 cars.

In its lifetime, Tesla has sold 19,000 Model S cars in 20 countries. Production has reached 550 cars a week, and it is building more cars than it can deliver to cope with planned international demand. Chinese sales will begin in Q1 2014.

The next step for Tesla in Europe is establishing a Supercharger charging network. It already has six chargers in Norway and plans to have complete Supercharger coverage in Germany by mid-2014. From there, it will expand to the rest of Western Europe and the UK.

Tesla also announced that it is accelerating development of the Model X and plans to have it on sale in 2014.

Source: Automotive News