Tesla halts production at Gigafactory Berlin to modernize the plant and add a makeover

Tesla is said to be shutting down production at Gigafactory Berlin in order to upgrade the plant and add a shift to achieve higher production capacity.

Tesla’s top priority is to ramp up production to keep up with customer demand.

The automaker does this at all of its plants, but ramps are more important at Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Texas, which only started production recently.

The Giga Berlin appears to be doing relatively well thanks to the use of 2,170 cells, which enables the creation of a battery infrastructure that Tesla is accustomed to, and has achieved Production rate of 1,000 models per week in June.

Giga Texas appears to be falling behind as it has struggled to ramp up production of the 4680 battery cell and structural battery pack, but we reported last week that The factory has greatly increased production With Tesla beginning to build a long-range Model Y with 2,170 cells in the factory.

Tesla is now looking for Gigafactory Berlin to catch up, and the plant will be closed for about two weeks for an upgrade.

Germany Build It was reported today:

According to BILD information, Tesla wants to boycott operations for two weeks starting next Monday. It is unclear how many of the 4,500 employees will be sent on leave and how many technicians will remain to shift production.

The publication also says that the automaker will add a third shift and start producing electric motors at the plant rather than importing them from Gigafactory Shanghai:

According to the employees, after the interruption of production, work should be done in three shifts instead of two. In addition, Tesla could then begin manufacturing the drive in an adjacent hall.

While an upgrade can help, the biggest bottleneck at Gigafactory Berlin is its workforce.

Over the past few months, there have been several reports that Tesla is having problems hiring and retaining employees. Some of them suggested that salaries were a private issue and that the local federation, IG Metall, had started to get involved. But Tesla raised the salaries of many employees by 6% in order to address the concern.

It will take a significant hiring effort for Tesla to add a third shift at the plant after the plant restarts later this month.

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