Ending Soon! Save 33% on All Access

Elon Musk Urges Tesla Employees to Stop Rushing Deliveries Instead, the Tesla CEO is telling employees to minimize costs.

By Chloe Arrojado Edited by Amanda Breen

Bloomberg | Getty Images

Though customers may be well into their holiday season spending habits, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has asked employees to pump the brakes on rushing Q4 orders in order to hit sales goals.

On Friday, Musk sent a company-wide email to Tesla, saying its focus "should be on minimizing cost of deliveries rather than spending heavily on expedite fees, overtime and temporary contractors just so that cars arrive in Q4."

Throughout 2021, delivery delays have plagued Tesla due to a number of logistical issues. However, Musk wrote that Tesla's historic strategy of rushing to maximize deliveries isn't all that beneficial in the end.

Related: Elon Musk Announces Tesla's New Humanoid Robots

"What has happened historically is that we sprint like crazy at end of quarter to maximize deliveries, but then deliveries drop massively in the first few weeks of the next quarter," Musk wrote in the email. "In effect, looked at over a six month period, we won't have delivered any extra cars but we will have spent a lot of money and burned ourselves out to accelerate deliveries in the last two weeks of each quarter."

Musk continued, writing that the company is still expecting a large wave of deliveries towards the end of the year. However, he adds that now is "nonetheless the right time to start reducing the size of the wave in favor of a steadier and more efficient pace of deliveries."

Related: Elon Musk: You Don't Need a College Degree to Work at Tesla

Chloe Arrojado

Entrepreneur Staff

Editorial Assistant

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business News

More People Are Exploring Entrepreneurship Because of This Unexpected Reason

More new business applications were filed in 2023 than in any other year so far.

Starting a Business

How to Find the Right Programmers: A Brief Guideline for Startup Founders

For startup founders under a plethora of challenges like timing, investors and changing market demand, it is extremely hard to hire programmers who can deliver.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Data & Recovery

Data Privacy Matters to Your Customers — Show Them It's a Priority For You, Too. Here's How.

Your business can help reassure customers and earn their loyalty by treating all incoming data as valuable.

Business News

TikTok Reportedly Laid Off a 'Large Percentage' of Employees as the App's Fate in the U.S. Remains Unclear

Laid-off TikTok employees were notified Wednesday night through Thursday morning.