Tesla has had trouble at times meeting the ambitious deadlines that the company's CEO, Elon Musk, has set for it. Most recently, the company's Model X production rates were slower than it had hoped. The company cited supplier issues, and when pressed at the Code Conferenceon Wednesday night, Musk reiterated the complicated process of car manufacturing.
"One thing that makes a car very difficult is it's an integrative product with thousands of components," Musk said. "If you use tier one and tier two suppliers, there end up being several thousand suppliers, [and] things move as fast as the least lucky and least competent supplier."
Here are some other things that have slowed Tesla production:
A tsunami
A hail storm
Earthquake
Fire
A shootout on the Mexican border (This specific issue delayed shipments of trunk carpeting.)
But even in these situations, Tesla is prepared to build these components in-house, according to Musk.