Tesla has confirmed that the progression in the increase in the rate of manufacturing at its plant in Germany is going well, and this week the American manufacturer has managed to reach a rate of 4,000 Model Y units per week.
This marks another leap forward for Tesla, which just before last Christmas was achieving rates of 3,000 units per week at its Grünheide facility. Figure that in a few weeks has escalated by a thousand additional units.
Until now, Tesla has worked two shifts at its European production facility. Something that should mean that to increase the number of units, they will have to increase from two to three work shifts in production lines which will go from 9,000 to 12,000 employees.
Target 500,000 units per year
As we remember, Tesla has proposed to bring the production capacity of the German plant to 500,000 units per year. Both the current Model Y and later also adding Model 3 to its lines.
Despite this, the increase in production at the German factory is slower than Tesla expected. This is due to delays in the construction of the factory, in particular, due to protests by residents and environmental groups, but also due to frequent change requests from the project company.
Tesla is also reportedly having trouble finding enough staff and maintaining the existing workforce.
Among the changes that the facility has undergone is the decision not to produce batteries in the factory itself. Something that will mean bringing the batteries from outside, at least for now until the possibility of doing it on-site is clarified.
This movement may have to do with the problematic access to water, but also because of the new laws launched by the United States to encourage the local production of electric cars and batteries, which makes it cheaper for Tesla to manufacture them in North America and import them to Europe.
