Tesla is opening a new factory to meet the massive demand for the Model 3, Jon McNeill, Tesla Motors' president of global sales, said in an interview with CCTV News.
Tesla currently has a factory in California that can produce 600,000 vehicles a year, McNeill said in the interview. But Tesla is set on opening another factory specifically to ensure it's "ready to deliver the Model 3 on time."
That plant "could very well be in China," he added.
Tesla has received almost 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3, according to an April 21 Reuters article. There have been concerns that Tesla can't meet that demand, especially considering the Roadster, the Model S, and the Model X SUV all arrived late for various reasons.
Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk wavers a bit on whether the Model 3 will meet its target production date of the end of 2017.
"I do feel fairly confident that it will be next year," he said during the Model 3 unveiling, "fairly" being a key word there.
—CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) April 27, 2016
McNeill said in the CCTV interview that ensuring the Model 3 gets out on time is the main priority for the company and that opening another plant will aid in meeting its targeted production date.
