Elon Musk: Tesla Production "Makes World War II Look Trivial"

"I'm not kidding. The scale is insane."

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk chose a bold comparison when he discussed the electric automaker's quarterly results this week, saying that the challenges Tesla faced were tougher than a world war.

Managing supply chain and production issues was a "logistical problem that makes World War II look trivial," Musk told investors during a Monday conference call, according to Insider.

"I'm not kidding. The scale is insane," Musk added. "We're talking millions of cars, massive global supply chain, 50 countries, dozens of regulatory regimes."

World War Tesla

Tesla sold about 500,000 cars in 2020 and is on track to deliver 750,000 this year, according to Insider. To be fair, that is an impressive feat that involves managing and tracking a whole lot of moving parts.

Sometimes, those moving parts break down, causing last-minute emergencies. Musk shared stories on the call about having to delay deliveries of the Model S because they ran out of trunk carpeting and the time he and others at Tesla bought up every USB cord they could find at retail stores across San Francisco.

"For a few days there, nobody could buy a USB cable in the Bay Area because we went and bought them all to put them in the car, literally," Musk said, according to Insider. "There's hundreds of stories like that."

READ MORE: Elon Musk says Tesla's logistics problems made 'World War II look trivial' [Insider]

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