- Assembly workers at Tesla’s Austin factory were reportedly told to stay home or clean the factory floors for a week.
- Production of the Model Y crossover and Cybertruck pickup will be affected by this move.
Tesla’s demand issues seem to have taken a turn for the worse, with its most successful product being the latest victim. Some assembly workers responsible for building the Model Y crossover–the brand’s best-selling model–were told to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, according to several employees quoted by Business Insider.
The move impacts Tesla’s factory in Austin, Texas. Additionally, Cybertruck line workers were also told to take a break in the last week of May. Per the report, the workers, who are paid hourly, were told to either take paid time off or report to work for cleaning and training. However, the workers will not be heading to their usual production lines.
A Model Y being assembled at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas
The affected employees said the break is unusually long and that Tesla has also reduced overtime hours, with some unnamed sources claiming they were told by management that they could face disciplinary action if they clocked overtime hours. Since February, the American automaker has reportedly been facing inconsistent work schedules, with some workers claiming they were sent home early multiple times.
Late last year, Cybertruck line workers at Tesla’s Austin factory were reportedly told to stay home for a few days. The decision came as a surprise because the angular pickup truck had managed to outsell all the other battery-powered pickups in the United States. As it turned out, however, demand for the controversial pickup had cooled significantly.
When it was still a headline-maker, the Tesla Cybertruck was hailed by Elon Musk as being capable of amassing a quarter of a million orders per year. That has yet to happen, and Tesla knows it. It tempered its expectations, saying it would be able to build up to 120,000 units per year, but even this number seems way out of reach.
Last year, Tesla sold 38,965 Cybertrucks, according to data from Cox Automotive. This year, the American EV maker is estimated to have sold 6,406 Cybertrucks in the first quarter–an increase over the same period last year but a huge decline from last year’s third and fourth quarters, where Tesla sold more than twice the number of units each quarter.
While the Cybertruck’s demand issues are already a few months old, the big news here is that the Model Y is also taking a hit. Even with the refreshed model rolling off the assembly line, the company’s money-maker seems to be taking a dive. It’s still a great car, as we found out in our review of the top-spec version, but the damage done by none other than the company’s own CEO is having lasting effects on the number of cars sold.
Last year, had its worst delivery numbers in two years, with a 13% drop globally. In the United States, the Musk-led company’s sales decreased by 5.6%, while the entire industry charged ahead with a 7.3% increase in sales.
