Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday that his electric car company had been about a month away from bankruptcy in recent years when it was still figuring out how to mass produce the Model 3 electric sedan, CNBC.com reported. In the middle of a discussion about Tesla’s fundraising history, a follower asked, “How close was Tesla from bankruptcy when bringing the Model 3 to mass production?” Musk replied: “Closest we got was about a month. The Model 3 ramp was extreme stress & pain for a long time — from mid-2017 to mid-2019. Production & logistics hell.” Musk has often spoken about what he calls the “production and logistics hell” of taking a new electric vehicle into high-volume manufacturing. However, Musk and the company had never disclosed exactly how little runway they had before facing a possible bankruptcy. In early 2019 — when Tesla was manufacturing fewer than 63,000 Model 3s per quarter — Musk raised billions by promoting Tesla’s self-driving ambitions at an Autonomy Day event and in calls with institutional investors.
