Tesla has announced that it will temporarily stop production of the Model 3 for up to five days, for the second time since February, in order to “improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates”, as the company is currently struggling with delivering on its targets, according to the Guardian.
According to reports by BuzzFeed, employees were taken by surprise and forced to use vacation days or take time off without pay.
Tesla boss Elon Musk had recently said that the “excessive automation” at Tesla had contributed to “manufacturing hell” and that it had actually slowed down manufacturing of the mass-market Model 3.
Tesla has repeatedly missed production targets and now aims to reach a volume of 2,500 cars per week. The initial target, however, was 5,000 cars per week, but many doubt that this will ever be achieved.