Tesla again pauses production of the Model 3 Sedan for 4-5 days: Reports

Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1, says the Tesla in a statement

Tesla Inc is temporarily suspending production of the Model 3 sedan for the second time in roughly two months.

The company announced to employees that the pause will be for four to five days, Buzzfeed reported Monday. A Tesla spokesman referred back to a statement provided last month, when Bloomberg News first reported that the Model 3 was idled from Febraury 20 to Febraury 24.

“Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1,” the company said in the emailed statement. “These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this.”

The shutdown is taking place a week after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gave CBS This Morning a tour of Tesla’s assembly plant in Fremont, California, and said the company should be able to sustain producing 2,000 Model 3 sedans a week. He said manufacturing issues that had been crimping output were being resolved and that Tesla probably will make three- or four-times as many of the cars in the second quarter.

Tesla built 9,766 Model 3 sedans in the first quarter. The company said in an April 3 statement that it was “able to double the weekly Model 3 production rate during the quarter by rapidly addressing production and supply chain bottlenecks, including several short factory shutdowns to upgrade equipment.”

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