Tesla is facing a test. There are some bad signs that point to deferring profitability longer than expected, such as high defect and rework rates. On the one h

Tesla is facing a test. There are some bad signs that point to deferring profitability longer than expected, such as high defect and rework rates. On the one hand, despite the challenges, Tesla has built more Series 3s than Chevrolet has built Bolts. On the other hand that's about 15% as many per week as Tesla thought they could do. The reason this isn't a fatal disaster is that nobody else is yet willing to try to beat that. There is no real replacement for a Model 3 available. Building hundreds of thousands of cars per year is not something that industry newcomers have managed to do for a very long time, nevermind electric aluminum cars. This is a different challenge than competing against high-end BMWs and Mercedes that also have relatively small production runs. The advantage Tesla has is that they started the learning process early. The competition is still a couple years from profitably selling a direct alternative. But every month Tesla is late is a month of sales runway and revenue gone.