Tesla pauses Model 3 production for several days
Pause at factory to ‘improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks’ comes following a tweet by CEO Elon Musk that ‘excessive automation’ at Tesla was a mistake
By Jillian D’Onfro
Tesla is temporarily shutting down production for the Model 3 at its factory in Fremont, California.
Buzzfeed reports that the pause will last four to five days, according to Tesla employees.
This shutdown follows a prior one in late February, and a company spokesperson referred CNBC to the same statement it offered then.
“Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1,” they wrote. “These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this.”
The Model 3 is critical to Tesla’s future as a mass-market auto maker. More than 400,000 people have pre-ordered one, paying US$1,000 refundable fees to do so.