Tesla has delayed plans to return to pre-COVID levels of production at its Shanghai plant yet again, according to an internal memo.
According to an internal memo seen by Reuters, Tesla plans to stick to its current single daily shift schedule at its Shanghai plant for at least another week, with a daily output of around 1,200 units. That projection is some 1,400 cars short of the 2,600 daily production goalthat the rapidly-expanding American car brand had said it would hit by May 16th (yesterday).
“Challenges remain for Tesla to double the number of workers living and sleeping near production lines to maintain ‘closed-loop’ operations,” reports Reuters, citing an unnamed source. “Companies in Shanghai are only allowed to reopen if they can operate under such an arrangement, which requires workers to be isolated.”
The understanding that Chinese workers really aren’t allowed to leave their workplaces also lends some perspective to Tesla Technoking Elon Musk‘s rant about the Chinese work ethic. If you missed that, Musk claimed that, “(The Chinese) won’t just be burning the midnight oil. They’ll be burning the 3am oil. So they won’t even leave the factory type of thing,” in an interview with The Financial Times. “Whereas in America,” he continued, “people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Tesla did not respond to Reuter’s request for comment, and their source declined to be identified, calling the matter, “private,” after revealing it to one of the world’s most widely-read news outlets (“LOL” doesn’t quite cover that one).
What you decide to make of this information— and whether or not you think it will impact Musk’s future plans for growth is up to you, but we think that trying to ramp up capacity while Shanghai is tightening its already strict COVID-19 lockdowns doesn’t have much chance of success. Scroll on down to the comments and let us know if you agree.
SOURCE | IMAGES: REUTERS.
