Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his new electric vehicle factory in eastern Travis County is “losing billions of dollars” due to supply chain issues.
In an interview with Tesla enthusiasts published Wednesday, Musk said the Del Valle plant was not meeting performance benchmarks, in part because Chinese battery suppliers were shut down amid a COVID outbreak. -19 in nearly 30 cities.
“This factory is losing crazy money right now,” he said. “We should produce a lot more cars from this factory, compared to a tiny amount of cars.”
Tesla’s Del Valle plant, which received millions in incentives from Travis County and Del Valle ISD, opened earlier this year after the electric carmaker moved its headquarters to Austin. Tesla opened another factory in Berlin in October.
Musk said both factories were operating at a loss. Shanghai, an industrial hub and home to one of Tesla’s biggest battery producers, instituted a near-total lockdown following a coronavirus outbreak this spring.
“Berlin and Austin are like giant money furnaces right now,” he told the Silicon Valley-based Tesla Owners Group. “There should be a giant roar, which is the sound of burning money, okay? Bigger than a dumpster [fire] Berlin and Austin are losing billions of dollars – right now .There’s a ton of spending and barely any outflow.”
Musk said the company’s top priority was to “get Shanghai back on track” and pull more cars off production lines at both plants.
Earlier this week, Musk said Tesla would likely lay off 10% of the company’s employees this year to make up for missed growth projections.
