Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently described the company’s Berlin and Austin factories as “gigantic money furnaces” in an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized club, in Austin, Texas. Musk quipped, “There should be like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire.”
Reuters reports that speaking to the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized club, in Austin, Texas, Tesla CEO Elon Musk described the company’s new factories in Berlin and Austin as “gigantic money furnaces.”
Tesla moves its headquarters to Austin in December and recently quipped that if you were to visit the facilities now: “There should be like a giant roaring sound, which is the sound of money on fire.”
Both the Berlin and Austin factories opened earlier this year, and during the launch of the Austin Gigafactory in April, Musk heralded the facility as “a new phase of Tesla’s future,” as the company planned to produce its Model Y and Cybertruck vehicles at the facility.
However, those factories are now producing a “puny” number of vehicles, Musk said, largely due to shortages of batteries and global supply-chain bottlenecks. “It has required all of our attention just to keep the factories going” in the face of “severe” disruptions, he told the club of Tesla fans.
“This factory is losing insane money right now,” Musk said, looking through glass windows at the factory floor. “We should be outputting a lot more cars from this factory, versus a very puny amount of cars.”
Musk noted that several challenges have caused setbacks in production. Musk said that the tools required to manufacture cars using 2170 battery cells were “stuck in port in China, with no one to actually move it,” as the Tesla factory in Shanghai faces regular shutdowns due to local coronavirus restrictions. Musk further added that the company was finding it challenging to produce more structural battery packs and associated 4680 batteries.
Musk noted that the Berlin factor, which opened in March, also faced similar obstacles but was “in a slightly better position” as it is focused on the 2170 battery cells. Tesla was also challenged by the global shortage of semiconductor chips last year and coronavirus lockdowns. Musk stated: “I’m not sure everyone knows just how serious the covid shutdowns were in China — and it’s not done yet.”
He further noted that the rising price of battery minerals was a major issue for the company.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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