No, as a sunny boy Elon Musk appears no longer. And even the Tesla enthusiasts have become a little quieter. Reality gnaws hard at the darling of the shareholders. In 2016, he talked big to produce a car every 25 seconds, which might have been topped. By now he has reached with the Model 3 a little bit more than 2,000 pieces a week. Provided two-shift operation and 5-day workweek, that is about 140 seconds between the vehicles.

From the end of June, he wants to create the forecasted 5,000 units per week, significantly more than doubling the production in three months. Even if we take that as a given, the 400,000 customers are still waiting for an average of another 80 weeks or 1.5 years on their cars. Musk admits there have been cancellations, but means only from people who absolutely needed a car. The Model X was already announced two years too early.

He himself speaks of the hell of production, has even allowed a camera team making pictures in the factory and shown his scant sleeping on a hard couch. So he would be faster at the problems, giving an example as a CEO to his employees. Journalists are already asking if anyone could imagine that Mary Barra, head of GM, could also spend her nights in the company. Time to get to the professionalism of a real automaker, to finally leave the startup phase behind.

He has thoroughly underestimated the difficulties, the model 3 may be equipped with too many innovations at the same time. The shown part of the production is pretty much without people. But apparently a certain superiority of robots has also caused problems, slowing production rather than making it faster.

As if that were not annoyings enough for Musk, in between there are recalls of 123,000 Model S, still needed because of problems with the steering. And then another lethal accident in what is now by Tesla called 'Semiautonomous Mode'. The driver has demonstrably ignored requests to take his hands back to the steering wheel. The boss himself now publishes the slogan, Autonomous driving would never work without problems.

And then he allows himself even the 1. April joke with the news that Tesla is broke. Emphasizes that too and wonders if the stock slips significantly. Of course, it recovered shortly thereafter, but compared to a year ago, it has lost about one-sixth of its value. Nevertheless, Tesla's market capitalization is still just above Ford's. 04/18