This Week in Tesla: Production Expected to Increase ~20%, Tesla Dissolves PR Department

Production Expected to Increase ~20%

Tesla is currently going for an end-of-year push to sell 500,000 cars this year that would mean they have to increase their fourth quarter sales by 17% from their third quarter sales. The news came in a leaked email that CEO Elon Musk sent to all Tesla employees:

“It will be tough but super exciting if we can exceed 500,000 cars made in a single year for the first time in Tesla history. When we started Tesla just over 16 years ago, I never thought we would get this far, but, thanks to your hard work and ingenuity, we actually have a chance of making half a million cars in a single year.”

Tesla produced 330,000 cars in the first three quarters of 2020 which means they would have to produce 34% of their cars for the entire year in only 25% of the year. This is an especially tough task because COVID-19 has reduced all car sales, as sales in July 2020 were 45% less than that of July 2019.

Tesla Dissolves PR Department

In a questionable move, and a certain first for the automotive industry, Tesla has dissolved their public relations department. Over the past couple of months, Tesla has slowly stopped replying to press inquiries as well as firing or moving their PR staff to different positions at the company. Although the reasoning for the move is unclear, it is likely a result of the fact that Tesla does not advertise and is doing just fine without speaking to the media a lot or doing a lot of media events. On the other hand, this is probably not in Tesla’s best interests if they hope to be portrayed in a more positive light by the media.

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