Tesla Motors is under tremendous pressure to ramp up Model 3 Production. People have started talking, and are starting to doubt the automaker. Can Tesla deliver? The waiting list is huge. More than 450,000 customers are waiting. The electric carmaker is lagging behind its own production targets. In the last quarter, the company made only 260 vehicles.
Pink slips to 400-700 Tesla workers
Tesla has not yet posted any annual profit. Now, the company has set tongues wagging by firing hundreds of workers. Employees believe that Tesla has handed out pink slips to 400-700 workers after annual performance reviews.
On Saturday, the Elon Musk-led company confirmed the job cuts in a statement but refused to disclose the exact number of cuts.
Tesla had 33,000 employees prior to the cuts. The San Jose Mercury News interviewed some of the employees. They said most of the cuts were in the administrative, sales, and manufacturing operations departments. After the reviews, there were also a number of workers who received promotions and bonuses. This number too has not been disclosed yet.
Reports challenge automated assembly line
Musk had set a 2017 production target of 100,000 cars, including other models. He also wants to increase production five-fold by 2018. According to The Guardian, this goal must be met to support the automaker’s market value of US$59 billion.
This is, in fact, more than that of Ford’s. Despite the many pink slips handed out, Tesla is still looking to hire more workers.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the Tesla Model 3 production began in July. However, reports soon flooded the Internet, stating that parts of the electric sedan were being made by hand, instead of the automated assembly line Tesla had boasted of.
There has been a lot of negative media coverage on this issue.
Tesla slams negative media reports
Tesla lashed out at The Wall Street Journal report by saying that the information was “fundamentally wrong and misleading.” The company claimed that all Model 3s were being built on the automated production line. Musk soon posted videos of the line on Twitter to clear all doubts.
Despite Tesla having a loyal fan-following, there is a growing faction of people, who believe the company will fall like a house of cards. There is a latent fear about whether Musk will be able to achieve his goals, and deliver on his high promises. Currently, the only way to stop all the negativity surrounding the Model 3 is by producing thousands of them.
According to USA Today, Musk acknowledged on October 6 that his Palo Alto, California-based company was facing bottlenecks in Model 3 production. However, Musk also added that Tesla was in the process of diverting resources to clean up production challenges.
