Production in Grünheide still behind schedule – ramp-up expected in July

Production at the German Tesla factory in Grünheide is apparently still running at a low level. According to a media report, only 86 Model Y Performance per day are currently coming off the production line.

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As Teslamag also reports, citing “two well-informed sources”, the work at the individual stations takes about twice as long instead of 90 seconds. In addition, the electric cars would have to be intensively reworked afterwards.

Most recently, it was reported in mid-April that around 30,000 vehicles would be built in Gigafactory 4 by the end of this year. By the end of April, production was even to be increased to 1,000 Model Y per week, as reported by Automobilwoche with reference to company circles. However, with the current 86 Model Y performance per day, Tesla is far from the target.

Teslamag cites quality problems as one reason. Produced vehicles do not immediately land on the collection area, but first have to be parked in a separate area and reworked. Secondly, it cites staffing problems. At the moment, there is simply not enough staff to start up a second line. But delivery problems due to the lockdown in Shanghai are also slowing down production at the German Gigafactory. At the moment, there would be a shortage of batteries because deliveries from China are not forthcoming. The drives also come from Shanghai. But here improvement seems to be in sight: local production of drives is to start in June. From the second half of July, a much faster pace is planned.

Tesla, however, is known for enabling exponential growth quickly. This could occur at the Giga Berlin, as the Gigafactory in Grünheide is also known, from the end of July. For major changeovers, German production is to be interrupted for a fortnight, making rework on the Model Y produced obsolete. Specimens that can no longer be produced should be able to be removed from the ongoing process.

In the run-up to the start of production in March, there were already reports in other media that production in Grünheide this year would remain far below the capacity of 500,000 vehicles in the first expansion stage. If Tesla can manage a faster production flow, find enough employees and also introduce a second shift, the significant increase in the production rate should succeed.

There is also news on production in China: at the Shanghai factory, Tesla has postponed the plan to increase production to 2,600 cars per day from 16 May by one week to 23 May, according to Reuters. This is to be done by expanding production to more shifts.

Tesla has also put its plans to sell electric cars in India on hold, abandoned its search for showrooms and reassigned part of its team in India after failing to secure lower import taxes, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Update 24 May 2022

Tesla is increasing production at its factories in Germany and China. According to insiders, the two-shift operations began in Grünheide on Monday. Among other things, this is to be made possible by hiring new employees. A total of 500 new employees were hired last week alone. However, it remains unclear how many vehicles Tesla is now producing daily as a result.

According to an internal memo, Tesla plans to increase production in Shanghai from 1,000 cars per day to 2,600 vehicles per day as of today. This step is also intended to achieve the planned total production of 16,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y.

teslamag.de (Grünheide), reuters.com (Shanghai), reuters.com (India), driveteslacanada.ca, reuters.com (both update)