Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.
The break is unusually long, the workers said. Production lines were up and running during the same period last year, they said.
The electric vehicle maker notified employees earlier this week. The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.
Tesla deliveries dropped 13% year over year during the first quarter.
I’m predicting the breaking news story for June 2nd is they find out they’re fired.
a real George Bluth Sr. move
Fire Tom, and get your jackass brother out of here.
So an indefinite furlough… got it.
I’ve been arguing the Q1 result was cooked already from day 1 they came out. The actual result is probably way worse. One of the reasons is that Tesla has been producing way to many cars, and the cars on stock are overvalued to push the deficit into the future. Where they probably hope to camouflage the loss in other ways.
But competition is intensifying, and Tesla is already at a very low margin on each car sold. Increased competition is at a point where Tesla will have to sell cars at a deficit. While at the same time write off value on stock. Or alternatively lose even more marketshare.
The glory days where Tesla had the highest margin per car sold in the industry are long gone.Yes, all that, but the effect of Elon completely alienating the people who wanted to buy Teslas can’t be understated. I don’t hate the cars at all, but my god I loathe Elon and would never give him money.
Absolutely, if Elon had been a normal CEO, Tesla would probably still be riding on the reputation they had few years ago.
What I’m saying is that it will be hard for Tesla to make a comeback, even if they somehow manage to restore the name.
They are no longer a technology leader, and they aren’t leading on value either, which makes Tesla just one among many options.
And it seems they can’t keep up with the competition anymore, now that the traditional auto makers have learned the basics of making a good EV. And China is so far ahead on batteries and Fast Charging it isn’t even funny.
Both BYD and CATL have batteries that can charge 3 times faster than the fastest Tesla!In USA Tesla is protected by tariffs, So USA has lower competition, but in Europe and China, I don’t think Tesla has much of a future, (EU has 3 times as many BEV models to choose from than USA!) and even USA will be a a huge uphill struggle, because they have such poor brand recognition.
I don’t think Musk can turn Tesla around, the claimed options to do that are RoboTaxi, and AI and robots. But Tesla is not even close to be leading in any of those fields. So Tesla will be a company with huge R&D costs, but little money coming in. Unless Musk can keep conning new investors of course.The little Ford EV hatchback they sell in Europe is a lot more attractive than a Tesla personally. I just wish we could get them in the US, but the CEOs have apparently decided by fiat (hah) that no small cars are desired.
The Focus is AFAIK discontinued, but maybe you mean the Puma?
The Puma Gen-E is what I was thinking of, could’ve sworn it was a 2-door though. Must’ve confused it with something else.
That’s a cool car IMO, but personally we want something with better range.
It is quite impressive in efficiency though 13.1 kWh/100 km. And it is decent for fast charging.Why?
Every vehicle doesn’t need to do everything. Otherwise we’d all buy turbocharged Hummers with a trailer for extra fuel. It’d be nice to have some middle ground between a smartcar that confined to surface streets and something you’d take a roadtrip in. A worst-case ~150-200 mile range is enough for a boatload of people to commute 50 miles and not have to worry. If you can plug it in overnight, even on just 120v, charging speed is a negligible concern.
I think a lot of range anxiety is weird. A lot of gas cars from the 80s/90s/00s have ~300/400 mile range per tank, but that’s because you don’t want to go to a gas station every day. If you could just trickle in gas overnight they could’ve had much smaller tanks too.
“You’re making that up.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Focus_Electric
Production December 2011 – May 2018
But the Focus is the only hatchback I could think of.
Sorry, it was a joke from the old machinima Red vs Blue. There’s a truck called the Warthog and someone suggests it looks like a Puma. Another person says “you’re making that up”.
It’s at 1:46 https://youtu.be/Rju4RWdEyZk
That was far too old a reference to drop casually. My bad.
The brand can recover if they remove Musk but I’ll never support it cause the Nazi will still get his cake from w.e cars get sold.
Tesla must Unionize!
One of the reasons they moved to Texas was to prevent that.
Why? Are Texans stupid?
“Hey Patrick, What am I now?”
“Uh Stupid?”
“No, I’m Texas!”
This SpongeBob joke has lived rent free in my head since I was a literal toddler.
Yes
Awe.
Are you in awe of how stupid they are?
No 😂
Just disappointed I guess. I was hoping for a better answer.
You are in awe of how disappointed you are?
They elect stupid people. Also shitty people. Their labor laws are horribly anti-worker/very pro- company.
Why? There really isn’t a path to profitability now. The brand is dead internationally and domestically.
Yeah, but Musk hates unions. The swedes are making a big point out of unionizing.
Yea pretty obvious. I need a car and Tesla would be a good choice if that fucking asshole didn’t own it.
Same. They sent me a survey for owning my 3 for so long. In the survey I pretty much gave the car good reviews. Then it asked me if I would buy another and pretty much stated I would not buy another tesla if Elon musk is part of the company. I doubt anyone reads the surveys but hey here’s to hoping. 🗿
You’ve contributed to the word cloud, thats all you need
Good choice? They keep bait and switching their own features, and their QC is garbage. Take Elon out of the equation and I still won’t buy their early access version of a car. I’m tired of companies treating end consumers as their play testers.
Tesla = Pinto
Didn’t Trump’s tariffs remove the unfair advantage of foreign cars so now superior US-made cars dominate the free market because they’re the best?
And Tesla’s cars, with their Full Self Driving™ technology are literally 20 years ahead of the competition, so why aren’t people buying them??
I don’t understand!I think the answer is over there somewhere.
Now THAT is how much power musk has! Destroying a huge ev brand with only one arm gesture! /s
He did do it twice, to really set it in.
Photo edited? What’s the icon on the bottom left?
You know he actually did a Nazi salute right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy?wprov=sfla1
It’s the Google Images Search button, since that was a quick screenshot from my phone.
Yeah, this must be faked lol
Don’t forget the robust repair network Tesla provides.
And their amazing price to value!
Tesla is competing with itself. 😄
I buy car for the pleasure of driving them, if I don’t want to drive i take the bus, train, plane or cab.
Didn’t Trump’s tariffs remove the unfair advantage of foreign cars
These tariffs don’t just affect us. China used to be a huge market top for Tesla. They could never compete with low priced local manufacturers but now they e alienated potential customers willing to pay a premium
only tesla is not tariffed.
This is just how Musk makes an organization “efficient”.
Cut to tomorrow’s video of him carrying out their staff lockers to sell on Facebook Marketplace for $45
Well yeah, I mean without the whole embezzlement of personal data from various departments thing. Hes already got that.
Maybe one more Trump commercial in front of the white house might break the spell
Still waiting for those rushed Boeing Air Force Ones to start flying the Trump & DOGE around…
The beginning of the end
Absolutely, but you could also say that beginning was a year ago, where Tesla sales began to slump.
Remember when we hear about poor sales this year compared to 2024, that 2024 was already a bad year for Tesla!
The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.
I mean, you’d be stupid to not come in, right? Who wants an involuntary unpaid vacation?
I’ve done it before. When we were working 64 hour weeks? Fuck yeah I’m taking that time off. It also said they could use PTO. The thing is, everywhere I’ve ever worked, there was never just “one week” of it off. It’s like one week every 4-6 weeks as it’s slowing down. Hell, I’m on one now. It’s basically to avoid layoffs and losing experienced workers.
Also, when you get a week off like that, it’s considered a layoff. So you can apply for unemployment for that time. If you keep calling in and reporting your working hours during the time that you’re back, you don’t have to refile for the next time it happens. Which will happen again in a couple weeks/months. The weird thing to me is that this is being reported on. It happens all the time, it could be for inventory adjustment, or because they’re having problems procuring parts due to tariffs. Or retooling/maintenance.
My point is, this doesn’t mean a whole lot as of yet. If it happens several more times over the coming months, then that means something. Especially since the stock isn’t going down like it was.
Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.
Setting aside the Musk/Trump shennanigans and their impact on the Tesla brand as a whole, though…they’re also talking about the Cybertruck.
I can believe that maybe they keep demand for the Model Y at a sustained long-term level, but I have a hard time believing that the Cybertruck is going to take off. I mean, if there’s enough commonality across lines, then maybe they can use the Cybertruck workers elsewhere, but I just don’t think that the Cybertruck is going to become a big success.
Like, at some point, they gotta cut their losses on that thing.
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/tesla-cybertruck-sales-musk-b2746688.html
Tesla Cybertruck sales underperformed in Q1, dropping more than 50 percent compared to sales in Q4 of 2024, reflecting a larger theme for the electric vehicle maker, which has faced market volatility and decreasing sales as its CEO has taken a role in the Trump administration.
In the last quarter, Tesla sold roughly 6,400 Cybertrucks – more than double the number from the same time last year but significantly fewer than the 12,900 sold in the final quarter of 2024, according to research firm Cox Automotive.
It’s the second consecutive quarter Tesla has seen a dip in Cybertruck sales. Sales peaked during Q3 of 2024 with roughly 16,600 sold.
The Cybertruck was introduced to the electric vehicle market in 2023, and at the time, Musk touted that more than one million people had paid a $100 refundable deposit to reserve one.
It also dropped production targets for several Cybertruck lines over the last few months, workers familiar with the matter told Business Insider. Production lines have reportedly also been thinned out; now, some are said to be working at a fraction of their previous capacity.
None of that surprises me. The cyber truck is a flop so it makes sense to “inventory adjust” a week for them. And you can likely expect that trend to continue. Nice of them to give time off for their workers to enjoy the spring weather, right? 😉
The model Y just got a facelift, though. And whenever that happens, there are hiccups. That being said, you would think production would be going full bore for it from generated excitement from the refresh.They could have found a flaw that stopped production while they fix the issue, or it could be that the excitement that they expected isn’t there. Knowing Tesla, it’s likely both.
I frequently took unpaid time off at my jobs as I used all my paid time off for various vacations.
Tesla might not accommodate such requests though, so a sudden week off might be something someone would jump at for a last minute vacation.
Choosing to do so at a time convenient to you is something I can understand. For the benefit of your employer, no.
Well if you decide you wanna do something it’s not at their benefit anymore.
For the vast majority of people, coming in for the paid training/cleaning is the right choice.
And oh yeah, we’re not using dollars any more, you get paid in CT’s now
Definitely because no one’s buying them. Elon is not generous with time off.
It’s not paid time off.
Edit: I used to work a salary position in Texas. On slow days it was common to tell the hourly employees we had nothing for them right now and to go home. The salary employees always had something to do.
They can “take” paid time off, meaning their few vacation days being used because of the failure of the company. Or they can come in to clean lmao.
The end is near.
Think of all the lives that will be spared because Leon never got the chance to implement his shitty FSD that he kept dangling in everyone’s faces
Tesla will announce their new military grade model that the defense will purchase thousands of cars using tax money.
I mean, maybe that’s a good thing for any future resistance movement? The powers that be using highly flammable / explosive, unreliable, piece of shit glued together trucks that can’t handle a carwash.
Looks like they arent paying their workers for the time either. Sounds like things are going really well there. I wonder if the workers who fall below 32 hours per week will get their full time benefits (like health care) cut. I’d bet yes.
Or come in for training and cleaning. So they can still be paid.
If anyone still has Tesla stock it’s probably a good time to sell.
Anyone who has a 401k likely has Tesla stock, unfortunately.
I expect whoever runs that is really good at trading.
Everyone that owns a S&P500 index or other similar ones owns Tesla shares. All pensions will own some amount. Collectively these pensions probably have 10s of billions or more in Tesla.
I was being sarcastic. But that’s scary.
It kinda is to be honest… The magnificent 7 as they call it, dominate the S&P500. I don’t have today’s figures, but recently it’s been as much as 30% of the index.
Any falter in big tech, or even one of these individual companies like Tesla, can have a huge impact on peoples pensions.
Edit: I guess if you still wanted to invest in something like this as a pension, but wanted to avoid a specific company, you could find a way to hedge against them to make it neutral. I don’t know if any do that though.
If anyone still owns a Tesla it’s probably a good time to sell it.
…as parts.
The good time to sell was December…
Suppose it’s now a “less bad” time than it’s probably going to get.
