Musk says Tesla’s two newest car plants are losing billions of dollars

Tesla Inc.’s new electric powered-car factories in Texas and Berlin are “getting rid of billions of pounds” as they wrestle to enhance generation for the reason that of a shortage of batteries and China port problems, Main Government Elon Musk stated lately.

“Both equally Berlin and Austin factories are gigantic income furnaces right now. Ok? It truly is definitely like a large roaring sound, which is the seem of funds on hearth,” Musk said in an interview with Tesla House owners Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized club, in Austin, Texas, on Could 31.

The club divided its interview with Musk into three sections, the previous of which was produced Wednesday.

Musk said Tesla’s Texas manufacturing unit generates a “tiny” selection of EVs mainly because of issues in boosting creation of new “4680” batteries and as resources to make its standard 2170 batteries are “stuck in port in China.”

The Shanghai COVID shutdowns in China “ended up extremely, pretty tough,” he reported. The shutdown affected EV creation not only at Tesla’s Shanghai manufacturing facility, but also at a California plant, which takes advantage of some automobile areas built in China.

“The earlier two yrs have been an absolute nightmare of provide chain interruptions, one particular point after a further, and we are not out of it but,” Musk explained.

Tesla’s frustrating issue, he said, is “How do we maintain the factories operating so we can spend people today and not go bankrupt?”

Musk said earlier this 7 days that a 10 p.c lower in salaried workers at Tesla will transpire more than a few months. He also claimed a U.S. recession was extra probable than not. Tesla earlier this year started out creation at the factories in Berlin and Texas, both equally of which are essential to the advancement ambitions of the top EV maker.

Musk claimed he predicted Tesla would begin production of the Cybertruck electric powered pickup trucks, which has been delayed, in mid-2023.