Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the automaker plans to expand electric vehicle production, driven by anticipated demand for autonomous driving. The announcement came as Tesla released its Q3 2025 financial results on Wednesday.
Over the past five years, Tesla’s production strategy has shifted. The company initially targeted 20 million vehicles annually by 2030 but currently has a production capacity of less than 3 million vehicles, of which approximately 60% is utilized. Lower-than-expected demand has also prompted Tesla to reassess plans for new factories, including a previously proposed gigafactory in Mexico.
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“I feel confident in expanding Tesla’s production. So that is our intent, to expand as quickly as we can our future production. I was reticent to do that until we had clarity on achieving unsupervised full self-driving, but at this point, I feel like we’ve got clarity and it makes sense to expand production as fast as we reasonably can,” Musk said during the earnings call.
The CEO emphasized that unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology will be a key driver of demand. “Here’s the killer app: really, what it comes down to is, ‘Can you text while you’re in the car?’ And if you tell someone, ‘Yes, the car is now so good you can be on your phone and text the entire time while you’re in the car,’ anyone who can buy the car will buy the car. End of story,” Musk added.
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Musk said the largest production increase will come from the Cybercab, Tesla’s fully autonomous vehicle scheduled to enter production in the second quarter of 2026.
The vehicle will be built without a steering wheel or pedals, making the successful deployment of unsupervised driving essential. The CEO also confirmed plans to remove the safety monitor from Tesla’s Robotaxi in Austin, Texas, and to roll out unsupervised FSD in consumer vehicles by year-end.
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