SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla’s new automobile factories in Texas and Berlin are “dropping billions of {dollars}” as they battle to extend manufacturing due to a scarcity of batteries and China port points, Chief Govt Elon Musk stated in an interview printed on Wednesday.
“Each Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic cash furnaces proper now. Okay? It is actually like a large roaring sound, which is the sound of cash on hearth,” Musk stated in an interview with Tesla Homeowners of Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized membership, in Austin, Texas, on Could 31.
The membership divided its interview with Musk into three elements, the final of which was launched on Wednesday.
Musk stated Tesla’s Texas manufacturing unit produces a “tiny” variety of automobiles due to challenges in boosting manufacturing of its new “4680” batteries and as instruments to make its standard 2170 batteries are “caught in port in China.” “That is all going to get fastened actual quick, nevertheless it requires a whole lot of consideration,” he stated.
He stated its Berlin manufacturing unit is in a “barely higher place” as a result of it began with utilizing the standard 2170 batteries for automobiles constructed there.
SEEKING TO ‘NOT GO BANKRUPT’
He stated the COVID-19-related shutdowns in Shanghai “have been very, very tough.” The shutdown affected automobile manufacturing not solely at Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing unit, but additionally at its California plant, which makes use of some car elements made in China, he stated.
Tesla plans to droop most manufacturing at its Shanghai plant within the first two weeks of July to work on an improve of the location to spice up output, based on an inside memo seen by Reuters.
“The previous two years have been an absolute nightmare of provide chain interruptions, one factor after one other, and we’re not out of it but,” Musk stated.
Tesla’s overwhelming concern, he stated, is “How will we maintain the factories working so we will pay individuals and never go bankrupt?”
Musk stated early this month he had a “tremendous unhealthy feeling” concerning the financial system and that the corporate wanted to chop workers by about 10% and “pause all hiring worldwide.” Earlier this week, he stated a ten% minimize in salaried workers at Tesla will happen over three months.
Tesla earlier this 12 months began manufacturing on the factories in Berlin and Texas, each of that are crucial to the expansion ambitions of the highest electrical automobile maker.
Musk stated he anticipated Tesla would begin manufacturing of its Cybertruck electrical pickup vehicles, which has been delayed, in mid-2023.
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