Tesla to Pause Production of Model 3s

April 17, 2018—Tesla plans to halt production of its Model 3 compact vehicle this week, in a move that the New York Times reports serves as an attempt to work out problems which have slowed assembly.

Tesla will reportedly halt its Model 3 assembly line for several days, to address impediments that have kept production below the electric-car company’s goals.

While the OEM produced around 2,000 Model 3s in the final week of March, it hopes to increase that figure to 5,000 cars per week by the end of this year’s second quarter.

In a statement, Tesla said it planned downtime into its production plans at its plant in Fremont, Calif, in an effort to improve automation and address bottlenecks. The OEM had been counting on swift production of the Model 3, which costs consumers $35,000, in hopes of bolstering revenue, which would help the company reduce losses and pay off bonds and borrowings.

To produce the Model 3, Tesla gambled by creating an assembly line that relies more heavily on automated equipment and robots than workers, the New York Times noted. In a recent tweet, the OEM's chief executive, Elon Musk, acknowledged that “excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake. To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated.”