Production of the Tesla Model S and X will be suspended for 18 days: email

Tesla announced Friday to employees at its Fremont, Calif. Facility that production lines for its Model S and X electric vehicles will be closed from December 24th to January 11th. This comes from an email from CNBC.

Employees working on these lines were offered a full week of wages to cover one of the two and a half weeks of closure as well as some paid holidays. You have been asked to take 5 unplanned and unpaid days off, but will have the opportunity to try to find work in other areas of the factory during those days.

They were also encouraged to volunteer to help deliver electric vehicles to customers during the shutdown.

In a separate email sent across the company on Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk noted that the company “is fortunate that the high-end demand problem this quarter is well above production” , and urged employees to increase production as much as possible during the remainder of the quarter.

The turning off of the S and X lines suggests that the high demand does not extend to these older models. It’s not clear what Tesla plans to do with its Model S and X-Lines during the vacation shutdown. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company struggled this year with a recall in China, a safety probe from NHTSA, and an extended warranty on some of its high-end Model S sedans and its luxury hawk-wing SUV, the Model X.

Deliveries of these vehicles totaled 15,200 in the third quarter of 2020, depending on vehicle production and company deliveries report from September 30, which accounts for around 11% of vehicle deliveries in the quarter.

At an annual general meeting and an investor presentation on Battery Day earlier this year, executives said the long-awaited Tesla Model S plaid would start shipping in late 2021.

The email to production workers working on the Model S and Model X SUVs (as transcribed by CNBC) stated:

Subject: S / X Holiday Shutdown

Hello team,

The SX lines will be closed for the holidays from December 24th to January 11th.

We want you to take the opportunity to freshen up or spend quality time with your family so Tesla will give you full weekly pay for the week of January 4th. During this time there are also limited paid options for you to support other businesses or volunteer for deliveries.

December 23 – last working day before shutdown

24.-25. December – Paid Holidays *

28.-30. December – Unpaid time off (can use PTO **), support deliveries, or other business.

December 31 – January 1st – Paid leave *

January 4th – 8th – Paid time off (40 hours)

January 11th – return to work

If you’d like to volunteer for December 26th through December 31st deliveries or support other businesses from December 28th through 30th, please use the survey below to let us know your preference. We will do our best to meet your requirements. However, the preferences are not guaranteed and are assigned based on availability.

Here is the separate email from Musk to all employees (as transcribed by CNBC):

Subject: vehicle production

We are fortunate that the high-end demand problem this quarter is well above production.

To ensure we get the best possible customer outcome and gain the trust of the customers and investors who entrusted us with their trust and hard-earned money, we need to ramp up production as much as possible for the remainder of the quarter.

I would only send this note if it was really important.

Super appreciated,

Elon

By the way, please message me directly if you see ways to improve the output but feel like your voice is not being heard.