Tesla Model 3 Production Was Suspended To Sort Bottleneck Issues

Recently, it’s seemed like whenever we’ve been talking about the Tesla Model 3, it’s been something to do with either quality issues or production delays. Today’s story involves the latter: specifically, that Tesla shut down production of the all-electric BMW 3-series rival at its Freemont factory from 20-24 February.
Ultimately though, this should help get the Model 3 back on track. In a statement, the company said:

“Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1. These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates.”

Tesla’s target is 2500 cars a week by the end of the first quarter of 2018, revised from 5000 a week. CEO Elon Musk had originally said that his firm would be making 20,000 Model 3s a month by December 2017, but in the end just 1550 during the entire fourth quarter of 2017.
Bottlenecks and automation issues have hampered Model 3 manufacture thus far, with Musk having previously described the car as being in “production hell.”