Tesla’s German plant ramps up slower than Elon Musk hoped

Whereas Tesla has steadily elevated output in Gruenheide — it produced 2,000 autos there the final week of September — efforts to additionally make batteries and increase the plant for extra logistics capability have been hindered by purple tape.

Throughout an occasion on the web site final 12 months, Musk warned that reaching quantity manufacturing at Gruenheide can be “extremely tough,” including that the corporate would wish “numerous proficient, hardworking folks to get there.”

Tesla has been getting ready to run three shifts at Grueheide for an around-the-clock manufacturing schedule, Germany’s Maerkische Onlinezeitung reported final week. Greater than 7,500 folks presently work on the web site, MOZ mentioned.

Final week, Tesla shares closed at a two-year low, costing Musk his place atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Whereas the CEO has been distracted by working Twitter, the carmaker has been chopping costs and manufacturing in China, and providing incentives for patrons to take supply of autos within the U.S.