Los Angeles - Tesla wants to hire hundreds more workers to ramp up production of its Model 3 vehicles around the clock at its factories, according to a leaked e-mail from company CEO Elon Musk.
Musk believes that constant production will ensure 6000 of its first 'mass-market' vehicles are made each week by the end of June, the e-mail obtained by technology blog Electrek showed.
The increased production rate is required to reach the publicly announced target of 5000 cars per week with a realistic margin of error, the e-mail said.
Musk said that any department or supplier who cannot achieve the projected goal needs to personally provide him with a "very good explanation why not, along with a plan for fixing the problem."
"We are going to find a way or make a way to get there," he added.
The e-mail came a day after Tesla announced it will temporarily stop production of the Model 3.
The assembly line at the company's Fremont, California, plant will shut down as part of "planned downtime" to "improve automation," a Tesla spokesperson told dpa.
The Model 3 is key to the company's efforts to generate revenue to repay investors and push development of other electric vehicles.
Production of the Model 3 "increased exponentially" - to more than 2000 per week - the company said earlier this month, even though the number fell short of the company's goal of 2500 per week.
Monday's announcement came just three days after Musk expressed confidence he could speed up production of the company's vehicles.
"Thanks for being such a kickass team and accomplishing miracles every day. It matters," Musk said in Tuesday's email.
So far there has been no formal announcement as to whether the Tesla model 3 will be sold in South Africa, but the country is still listed in the online
for the compact electric sedan.