--- title: "Elon Musk on Tesla’s Manufacturing Woes: “It Was Life or Death”" description: "Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that it was a \"life or death\" moment for the electric car company when it ran into trouble manufacturing the Model 3." date: "2018-12-09" modified: "2018-12-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-tesla-life-or-death" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Tesla" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "Model 3" - "SpaceX" - "tesla" --- # Elon Musk on Tesla’s Manufacturing Woes: “It Was Life or Death” ![Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that it was a "life or death" moment for the electric car company when it ran into trouble manufacturing the Model 3.]() *\Image: MICHAEL KOVAC/GETTY IMAGES/VICTOR TANGERMANN\* ## Life or Death Tesla CEO Elon Musk said this week that his electric car company faced an existential crisis when it [ran into trouble]() manufacturing the Model 3, its hotly anticipated all-electric sedan. "It was life or death," Musk said during [an interview]() with the CBS show *60 Minutes*. "Those betting against the company were right by all conventional standards that we would fail." ## Tent City Musk, who made his fortune as a PayPal executive before starting a [series of sci-fi-inflected businesses]() including Tesla and spacetech company SpaceX, told *60 Minutes* host Lesley Stahl that Tesla overcame those challenges with a flexible and breakneck approach to manufacturing that included setting up assembly lines in [tents erected in parking lots](). When Tesla succeeded in [meeting its ambitious goal]() of manufacturing 5,000 cars per week by the end of June, Musk said, he saw it as "an incredible American success story." ## Looking Ahead During the same interview, the eccentric CEO [also said]() that Tesla would consider taking over some of the five factories that GM [plans to abandon]() as it restructures. But ultimately, he said, he'll be happy if electric cars take over the market — even if Tesla ultimately fails. "If somebody comes and makes a better electric car than Tesla and it's so much better than ours that we can't sell our cars and we go bankrupt," he said, "I still think that's a good thing for the world." **READ MORE:** [Tesla CEO Elon Musk Welcomes GM Competition]() \[*CBS News*\] ***More on Elon Musk:*** [Reddit Co-founder Mocks Elon Musk’s Warnings About AI]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()