Translated quickly with google translate from a german newspaper (same news was apparently on CNBC):
After a tedious series of missed deadlines, Tesla seems to be in a hurry. Weekend work is mandatory, overtime the new ones are normal. A tent serves as a production facility. Every week there must be 5,000 copies of Model 3 (and preferably more) of the band at all costs. The nerves are high in the pioneer in electric cars. The bar is always higher. But how much stretch is there before the elastic snaps?
Goals that are not met over and over again cause damage to the image. CEO Elon Musk realizes that like no other. Tesla is under pressure to finally realize the sky-high ambitions. But technical failures always caused a spanner in the works. This should only be done once. And so Musk stayed in the factory regularly since last month. And if he was not there himself, his engineers would keep a close eye on everything, so workers claim.
Weekend services are required. "The managers went around the factory and said 'when you do not come, your name will be noted', an employee reported about the difficult working conditions.
Remarkable: what normally requires years of planning was done at Tesla in two weeks - the company built a new assembly line in a giant tent near the factory in California.
Twenty percent of the finished copies of Model 3 are currently being rolled off the belt. Workers were pushed to reach the original target of December 2017. "Workers from our production line were taken away to keep the belt running," said a Model S employee. The other models also slide into the back of the line when painting the cars. Model 3 is given the highest priority. "The paint unit could not cope with the large numbers", it sounds.
But the consequences did not remain. For the first time, 5,000 Model 3's were produced in a week. 5,031 to be precise. Musk says that with this milestone later this year, profit is on the horizon.
But when that magic number blew on the digital screens on Sunday morning at 5 o'clock, the workers had no time to catch their breath.
At the end of next month, the counter must be 6,000 copies per week, as Tesla announced yesterday. The staff was told that the working day is only over when the target for that day has been reached and not when their shift is over.
"They said we had to be prepared on working days of twelve o'clock. I feel that this will apply for six working days a week, "says a worker. In an e-mail to the staff, the boss shouted that Tesla has become a real car producer from now on. But analysts are less convinced of this. Even in the short term, that high production volume per week is not sustainable.
The assembly line in a tent also makes the eyebrows frown. "You only expect this in a crisis period or in emerging economies", it says. "Judging by the photographs that exist, it does not seem to be the most modern of the modern, nor an efficient solution."
That is, however, in contradiction with the claim of the pioneer in electric cars that has always claimed to be a high-tech company.
