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Ford’s Exec Pokes Fun At Tesla For Cheering After Building 7K Vehicles In One Week

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed Sunday that his company built roughly 7,000 vehicles in one week as analysts worry the California-based automaker will not be able to keep up the pace.

The company built thousands of vehicles in seven days, Musk wrote in a tweet. He promised investors that Tesla would make 5,000 Model 3s per week to keep his legion of critics at bay. One of his biggest competitors is not impressed with the tweet or his claim.

“I think we just became a real car company … ” Musk reportedly said in a memo to Tesla staff. (RELATED: Tesla Recalls More Than 100K Vehicles As Company’s Troubles Stack Up)

Tesla has reported only two profitable quarters in eight years and is deeply in debt as analysts question the company’s viability. The critiques have prompted Musk to lash out against journalists who he believes are trying to take down the company he built. (RELATED: ‘Thin-Skinned Bully’: Elon Musk Is Owning The Media And CNN Does Not Like It)

Meanwhile, Steven Armstrong, Ford president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, responded to Musk’s tweet with a claim of his own: “7,000 cars, circa 4 hours. Ford Team.” The comment was intended to highlight Tesla’s inability to reach an economy of scale large enough to compete with Ford’s massive output.

Tesla announced in a statement Sunday that the company managed to produce “11,166 Model 3 vehicles and 3,892 Model S and X vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of Q2 and will be delivered in early Q3.”

The high number of Model 3 vehicles in transit, the statement notes, “was primarily due to a significant increase in production towards the end of the quarter.” The statement dovetails with Musk’s claim. It remains to be seen whether Tesla can maintain that level of production.

Correction: A previously version of this article described Steven Armstrong as the CEO of Ford. He is the company’s president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The rest of the article is accurate.

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