Just a few days after Tesla seemed to pause production at the Fremont Factory according to plans revealed by CEO Elon Musk last week, operations have appeared to resume already.
On Tuesday, we reported that Tesla had evidently paused production at Fremont, which was something Musk detailed on the company’s Q2 2023 Earnings Call just one week prior.
Musk said:
“Although, we expect that Q3 production will be a little bit down because we’ve got summer shutdowns to — for a lot of factory upgrades. So, just probably a slight decrease in production in Q3 for sort of global factory upgrades.”
The reason for the upgrades was unconfirmed, but upgrades were presumably caused by Tesla’s plans to revamp the Model 3 as a part of the Highland design that the automaker has reportedly been working on for over a year.
Photographs captured from a video posted by Met God in the Wilderness showed a nearly vacant logistics lot, no vehicle haulers, and even a blocked-off entry point, all signs that Tesla started the production interruptions in Fremont, which would make sense as this is where the Highland Model 3 project started.
Filings uncovered by Teslarati since late last year have shown Tesla’s development of the Model 3 Highland project, and tooling upgrades, as well as equipment installations, have been described in the automaker’s permit applications with the City.
Additionally, Tesla is planning to make more room on the floor at Fremont by reorganizing the factory, which has been described as “space-confined” for years.
Tesla never confirmed the pause, but the company had not filed any additional changes at the plant in four days when we first reported the stoppage. This is somewhat unusual as Tesla has multiple filings a day normally.
Another flyover from the same YouTube channel reveals that production is already restarting, but at a slow rate.
Credit: Met God In the Wilderness
The logistics lot has already started filling up once again, and haulers are now gaining access to the area.
Additionally, there are forklifts and other vehicles transporting equipment between buildings, which is something the factory was void of a few days ago when the first flyover took place.
Credit: Met God In the Wilderness
The slight pause in production evidently only lasted around three days, but it may take some time for Tesla to reach its previous manufacturing speed.
The filings over the past few weeks out of Fremont detail space improvements, tool installations, and process relocations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3KMaSVyHY
Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
