Tesla seems to be really struggling to keep up with the ridiculous demand for its beautiful Model 3 electric car.
Apparently, there is a waiting list of over 455,000 orders for the car (and that is after 63,000 preorders were cancelled by disgruntled or skeptical potential customers), whereas they produced only 260 in the whole of the last quarter (due to "production bottlenecks"). At that rate, it would take about 430 years (!) to catch up on current demand, let alone the expected increasing demand in future years. The Palo Alto, California-based company says it hopes to produce over 100,000 this year, after ramping up production, although this would still be far from sufficient to meet demand. But don't hold your breath on that.
Despite (or perhaps because of) this situation, Tesla has just laid off hundreds (an estimated 400-700) of its 33,000 workforce, mainly in administrative and sales departments, but also in its manufacturing operations, after its latest annual performance review. I'm not sure I'd be tempted to work for such an aggressive hire-and-fire company.
The other little factoid that came out during the reporting of this mess is that the Tesla company apparently has a market value of $59 billion, which is more than, say, Ford, even though (unlike Ford) Tesla has still be register a profit.
It's nice to be popular, and it's particularly nice to see so much interest in an environmentally-friendly product. But just imagine being the object of so much anticipation, so much pressure to deliver.
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