Tesla is temporarily suspending the production of its Model 3 electric car, in the middle of a long waiting list and several lost targets. The company, however, says the closure is intended to solve some of the problems that have contributed to the numerous delays in bringing cars to hundreds of thousands of reserve holders.
The automaker said on Monday it would halt production of the Model 3 sedan for 4-5 days at its Fremont, California assembly plant, reported BuzzFeed . However, Tesla says this is part of a planned downtime that was similar to another closure in February, and is not intended to affect the company's current production goals for the car.
"Our model 3 production plan includes periods of downtime planned in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1," said a spokesman for Tesla The Verge . "These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks to increase production rates.This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this."
Tesla reached a milestone in the first quarter by reaching a production rate of 2,000 models 3 per week, less than a target of 2,500 per week by the end of that quarter. But the company still plans to reach its goal of 5,000 cars per week by the end of the first half of 2018. In March, Tesla said it could double the weekly production of Model 3 by stopping the production line for short periods to be able to solve bottlenecks.
The production of the Model S and Model X is not affected by the shutdown. And the closure allegedly comes before Monday's report of workplace injuries at the Fremont plant that went unreported. Tesla said those reports of former workers were part of a stratagem of an "extremist organization."