Elon Musk says Model 3 production nearly killed Tesla

Elon
Musk talked to Axios about Tesla’s brush with
death.
YouTube/HBO

• Elon Musk told Axios in an interview that Tesla was
  “single-digit weeks” away from death earlier this
  year.
• This was due to the Model 3 production ramp, which has
  made headlines for pushing Tesla and its CEO to the
  limit.
• Musk admitted the long hours were not good for him,
  saying “no one should put this many hours into work.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed how close the company came to
folding in an Axios interview broadcast on HBO Sunday night.

“Tesla really faced a severe threat of death due to the Model 3
production ramp,” said Musk.

He added that the company was “bleeding money like crazy,” and
the haemorrhaging of cash got to the point where it was
“single-digit weeks” away from collapse.

The CEO said he was working seven days a week on every aspect of
the production. “I worked in the paint shop, general assembly,
the body shop,” he said.

Read more:
There wasn’t some other way to do this” — Elon Musk says
“everyone” at Tesla was working 100-hour weeks to ramp up Model 3
production

He admitted that the long hours were not good for his welfare.
“No one should put this many hours into work, this is not good,”
Musk explained.

You can watch Musk about the strain caused by the Model 3
production ramp here:

Musk has talked before about the strain exerted by Tesla having
to step up production of its Model 3,
staying overnight at the office and
struggling to get to sleep without the help of sleeping
pills.