Tesla managed to maintain a Model 3 production rate of about 2,000 units for 3 weeks before shutting down production last week to make some upgrades that they hope will result in increasing the rate.

Now, the automaker is registering 5,000 new Model 3 VINs after the production shutdown.

As we previously discussed on several occasions, looking at the total of vehicle identification numbers (VINs) is not a great way to track a production ramp-up at Tesla. This is because previous production programs have showed that the automaker skips numbers.

But if the rate at which Tesla is registering new Model 3 VINs is accelerating, that’s a pretty good indication that production is also increasing.

We saw this after Tesla announced that it reached a production rate of 2,000 Model 3 vehicles per week at the end of the first quarter as it registered a record 4,793 new Model 3 VINs with NHTSA and another 2,915 VINs the week after.

As it was confirmed in the email from Elon Musk to employees that we released last week, Tesla produced over 6,000 Model 3 vehicles over that period before shutting down for upgrades.

Now, the company registered today an additional 5,170 Model 3 VINs with NHTSA – bringing the highest Model 3 VIN to #33,466.

Electrek’s Take

It’s a good indicator that production is picking back up after the shutdown last week.

On top of that, Tesla has been continuously sending new invites to Model 3 reservation holders to order their vehicles in the US over the last two weeks – creating a backlog of orders for this new production capacity.

According to Musk, the upgrades made to the production line last week will enable a ramp up for “Model 3 production of 3000 to 4000 per week” over the next month.

Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if those ~5,000 new VINs are registered for the next two weeks of production.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on new registrations and try to track the new capacity coming from last week’s upgrades.

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