Tesla to shut down Model S and X production for 18 days

Employees were told they were being "given a full week of pay for the forced time off, but were encouraged to seek shifts working for, or even volunteering in, other parts of the business for the remaining unpaid days," the report said

San Francisco: Electric car maker Tesla will shut down production for its Model S and Model X vehicles at its Fremont (California)-based factory for 18 days, beginning December 24.

According to an internal memo accessed by CNBC, workers on those production lines will get a week’s pay and some will get paid holidays.

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Employees were told they were being “given a full week of pay for the forced time off, but were encouraged to seek shifts working for, or even volunteering in, other parts of the business for the remaining unpaid days,” the report said on Sunday.

The shutdown of the Model S and X lines suggests that the high demand does not extend to these older models.

“It’s not clear what Tesla intends to do with its Model S and X lines during the holiday shutdown”.

The memo also says the workers can volunteer to help with delivery of vehicles to customers while production is on hold.

In the third quarter of 2020 that ended on September 30, Tesla produced 145,000 vehicles and delivered 139,300. Of that number, Tesla produced just under 17,000 Model S and X vehicles, delivering 15,200 of them.

In a separate email to employees, Elon Musk said that demand for Tesla vehicles has been “quite a bit higher than production this quarter.”

After spending his most life in California, Musk has finally relocated to Texas, calling California ‘complacent’.

Tesla is building its next factory in Austin, Texas and Musk has threatened to move the production out of California.

The move to Texas makes sense for him as it has no state income tax while California has the highest tax regime in the country.