Tesla says its much-delayed Model X SUV is on track to arrive next month. The company made the claim in its quarterly shareholder letter today, but we'll believe it when we see it.
The vehicle was first announced in 2012 and was expected to ship last year. Tesla began taking pre-orders with $5,000 deposits in 2013 but announced last year that the car wouldn't actually ship until early 2015 (it didn't).
The delays are mostly due to the difficulty in actually building the vehicles themselves. During the earnings call today, Musk said that the Model X is likely the most challenging car to build in the world, and hiccups from a single supplier can cause ripple effects in the assembly process. Musk and company admit that they might have to push the date again if they hit more stumbling blocks: "Simply put, in a choice between a great product or hitting quarterly numbers, we will take the former."
