Chinese and European buyers behind massive surge in company's orders book

SAN FRANCISCO - On Thursday, Tesla chief Elon Musk urged workers to make the "biggest wave" of deliveries in the electric carmaker's history their top priority, Business Insider reported.

The news website posted a copy of an internal email from Musk rallying Tesla troops to pitch in with deliveries throughout Europe, China and North America.

"This is the biggest wave in Tesla's history," the email read. "For the last 10 days of the quarter, please consider your primary priority to be helping with vehicle deliveries. This applies to everyone."

The firm is experiencing the kind of increase in delivery demand that was seen in North America last year in Europe and China now, according to the email. It added the situation was exacerbated by component supplier shortages in Europe.

Musk was reportedly seeking volunteers to drive Tesla cars to destinations such as shipping points, but said he did not expect the delivery crunch to recur in future quarters.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

A message from Tesla's official Twitter account on Tuesday said that due to trouble processing an unusually high volume of online orders, a planned increase in prices of some models was postponed a day.

Currently, Tesla makes all its cars at a plant in the northern California city of Fremont and aimed to deliver 400,000 cars this year.

The firm recently introduced a new electric sports utility vehicle, which is slightly bigger and more expensive than its Model 3. The Model 3 is pitched as an electric car for the masses.

Tesla earlier this month showed the all-electric Model Y with a starting price of $39,000 for a version with a 230-mile (370-kilometer) range. Deliveries are expected to begin late next year, with the standard-range version likely to get to buyers by spring 2021, according to the company. Musk, 47, is a visionary and inventive boss but also unpredictable, especially on the social network Twitter. He has often used the site to communicate in defiance of rules imposed on executives of publicly-traded companies.

AFP