Tesla’s new automotive 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 Government Elon Musk stated lately.
“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 House owners Silicon Valley, an official Tesla recognised 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 facility 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 “caught in port in China.”
The Shanghai COVID shutdowns in China “had been very, very tough,” he stated. The shutdown affected automotive manufacturing not solely at Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing facility, but in addition at its California plant, which makes use of some car elements made in China.
“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 can we maintain the factories working so we will pay individuals and never go bankrupt?”
Musk stated earlier this week {that a} 10 p.c minimize in salaried workers at Tesla will occur over three months. The world’s richest man additionally stated the US recession was extra probably than not.
Tesla earlier this yr began manufacturing on the factories in Berlin and Texas, each of that are vital to the expansion ambitions of the highest electrical automotive maker.
Musk stated he anticipated Tesla would begin manufacturing of its Cybertruck electrical pickup vans, which has been delayed, in mid-2023.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
