TSLA jumps on news of Gigafactory 3 progress, 100,000 delivery target

Tesla’s share price has seen a welcome 6% boost today following a number of snippets of good news.

The first is some solid news regarding the progress of the Gigafactory 3 in Shangai, China, with Chinese publication Shine reporting that the factory has completed its first Model 3 body-in-white (car without any fixtures or fittings) at the factory recently and that the start of production is aimed for the 14th October. Earlier we had only heard a vague date of Q4 2019.

The news was corroborated by Yuan Guohua, president of Lingang Group, the authority in charge of the industrial zone where Tesla Gigafactory 3 is located:

“It took eight months from groundbreaking of the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory to the output of this product, which fully reflects ‘Shanghai speed and Lingang service’,” he said.

Similarly, Ma Jun, head of car glass supplier Saint-Gobain Sekurit’s Lingang factory, commented:

“Mass production is anticipated from October 14, together with the output of Model 3 vehicles.”

“Our annual output is expected to reach 120 million yuan (US$17 million), and at the next stage we may increase our investment and produce for the Model Y.”

Musk has said he aims to deliver 3000 vehicles from Gigafactory 3 per week when the factory is in full swing by the end of the year.

Somewhat related to this, a leaked email from Elon Musk revealed that the company is targetting a record 100,000 deliveries for the quarter, breaching their last high-water mark of 95,000 in the last quarter.

“We have a shot at achieving our first 100,000 vehicle delivery quarter, which is an incredibly exciting milestone for our company!”

“The challenge is making sure that we have the right car variants in the right locations and rallying as much as our company resources as possible to help with the end of the quarter deliveries.”

Tesla only has 5 days to hit this goal, and are offering a number of incentives to help shift the vehicles before the end of the quarter.

While Telsa’s share price has seen a good boost on the good news, the company is still more than 36% down from their 52 week high, suggesting many still need to be convinced the company has what it takes to bring EVs to the masses.