Tesla Inc. recently opened two gigafactories, earlier in Texas, U.S.A. and more recently in Germany, Europe. The plan was to increase production for sales in the U.S. as well as in Europe. In an interview, on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that both these factories were “losing billions of dollars.” He mentioned the reason for the losses was the shortage of batteries as well as port issues in China.
In an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, which is an official Tesla recognized club, Musk said, “Both Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic money furnaces right now. Okay? It’s really like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire.”
The club had divided his interview with them into three parts and the third part was published, on Wednesday.
The Tesla CEO also mentioned that the Texas factory was producing few cars as the automaker was facing challenges in increasing the production of its new “4680” batteries. He also noted that the tools that were required to manufacture the electric vehicle maker’s conventional “2170” batteries were “stuck” in a Chinese port. He said that it would get fixed quickly but it required a lot of attention.
Musk mentioned that the Tesla gigafactory in Berlin was in a better position as it had begun production using the traditional 2170 batteries for cars that were manufactured in its factory.
Musk also spoke of the shutdowns as a result of COVID-19 in Shanghai, China. He noted that the Tesla factory in Fremont, California was also facing problems as it used some vehicle parts that were made in China. So, the shutdown in Shanghai affected production at Tesla’s factories in China as well as in California.
In the interview, Elon Musk also spoke of supply chain interruptions in the past two years and said that Tesla was concerned about how it would keep its factories in operation so that people could be paid and the electric vehicle maker would not become bankrupt.
