Tobias Schwarz/Pool via REUTERS Elon Musk sent an email to his employees laying out an ambitious goal: building 500,000 vehicles in 2020. Tesla needs to produce 170,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter — a 17% increase over Q3 — to reach that mark. Musk's email comes after Tesla topped analyst expectations for third-quarter vehicle deliveries. "It will be tough but super exciting if we can exceed 500,000 cars made in a single year for the first time in Tesla history," Musk told his staff in an email reported by Electrek.