Tesla CEO Elon Musk has told employees – who must take leave or do other work in and around the plants, if available – the reason for the Model 3 production shutdown in Fremont and Gigafactory 1 is to prepare to increase production, a media report said.
According to website Electrek, citing an email sent to Tesla employees, Musk said the automaker was aiming to more than double production to 6,000 units per week across all production processes and suppliers in order to achieve 5,000 units per week in June after accounting for a margin of error.
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Last quarter's goal was 2,500 Model 3 units per week at the end of Q1, missed by under 500 units.
In the email, Musk also said Tesla was focusing on quality as quantities increase and now also on profit, which he now expects to hit in Q3 and Q4.
"Tesla's been trying to run full tilt," Chaim Siegel, an Elazar Advisors analyst, told Reuters before Musk's letter was published.
"He's sleeping overnight on the production floor. I don't think there is any way they'd purposely want to slow production. It tells me something's not quite right."
