Tesla Inc’s new automobile factories in Texas and Berlin are “losing billions of dollars” as they wrestle to extend manufacturing due to a scarcity of batteries and China port points, Chief Executive Elon Musk mentioned not too long ago.
“Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. Okay? It’s really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire,” Musk mentioned in an interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, an official Tesla acknowledged membership, in Austin, Texas, on May 31.
The membership divided its interview with Musk into three components, the final of which was launched Wednesday.
Musk mentioned 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 typical 2170 batteries are “stuck in port in China.”
The Shanghai COVID shutdowns in China “were very, very difficult,” he mentioned. The shutdown affected automobile manufacturing not solely at Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing unit, but additionally at its California plant, which makes use of some automobile components made in China.
“The past two years have been an absolute nightmare of supply chain interruptions, one thing after another, and we’re not out of it yet,” Musk mentioned.
Tesla’s overwhelming concern, he mentioned, is “How do we keep the factories operating so we can pay people and not go bankrupt?”
Musk mentioned earlier this week {that a} 10 p.c minimize in salaried employees at Tesla will occur over three months. He additionally mentioned a U.S. recession was extra seemingly than not. Tesla earlier this 12 months began manufacturing on the factories in Berlin and Texas, each of that are important to the expansion ambitions of the highest electrical automobile maker.
Musk mentioned he anticipated Tesla would begin manufacturing of its Cybertruck electrical pickup vehicles, which has been delayed, in mid-2023.
Source: www.autonews.com
