Tesla stock dropped over 2% on Tuesday after Business Insider reported that the company is halting output of the Cybertruck and Model Y for a week starting June 30 at its factory in Austin, Texas. The news came from a staff meeting held inside the plant, where employees were told the pause was for maintenance work on the production lines. This will be the third shutdown at that same facility in the past year. The company hasn’t said a word publicly about it. Inside the factory, workers have already experienced two previous shutdowns. One in late May and another in December, both affecting the same vehicle lines. The December halt was blamed on a battery shortage, workers told Business Insider. The May shutdown included voluntary training sessions, focused on what the company described as improving the workplace environment. Tesla keeps halting production in Austin The April slowdown didn’t involve a complete shutdown, but the Cybertruck line was scaled back, and some staff were reassigned. This string of production pauses shows a growing pattern. And while it’s not unusual for automakers to pause lines for scheduled maintenance or low demand in the summer, it used to be rare for Elon Musk’s company. Four Tesla employees told Business Insider that these pauses were not part of the regular workflow before. The context matters. Ford stopped making its F-150 Lightning for seven weeks last fall. During the chip shortage in 2021, both Ford and GM shut down certain plants. So while industry-wide comparisons exist, this kind of recurring disruption is still a big deal for Tesla, especially at its Austin Gigafactory, which plays a central role in producing its most hyped vehicles. Right now, Tesla is under pressure across multiple fronts. First-quarter delivery numbers were already down 13% compared to the previous year. The company is expected to report its Q2 numbers in July. But as of March 20, it had delivered less than 50,000 Cybertrucks, according to a recall filing. And it’s not like the Cybertruck is the only focus. The Model Y, which remains Tesla’s top-selling model, is also part of the shutdown. A refreshed version of the Model Y launched back in January, and now that too is being pulled off the line again. Tesla ties robotaxi launch to Model Y, despite shutdown While Tesla halts production of the very model it sells most, it’s also getting ready to roll out something completely different. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin on June 22, just eight days before the scheduled production stop. The robotaxi program will use Model Y vehicles loaded with an upgraded version of the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. Elon has personally been pushing the robotaxi story. He posted a video clip of a Model Y robotaxi driving itself through Austin last week. That post blew up, and anticipation for the service spiked online. Elon said the launch would include 10 to 20 vehicles to start. He said rides would begin on June 22, assuming everything goes to plan. But even he admitted the timeline might change. “We are being super paranoid about safety, so the date could shift,” Elon wrote in a post on X. He added that by June 28, the robotaxi vehicles should be able to drive themselves from the factory directly to a customer’s house. That’s just two days before the scheduled production halt kicks in. Which means the cars being used for the robotaxi service are the same ones whose production is being stopped—at least temporarily. That overlap raises serious questions. There’s also no indication if the pause is related to inventory issues, part shortages, or just routine factory upkeep. The only detail offered was that the June 30 halt is “for maintenance.” Employees said no official timeline has been shared for when full production resumes. All of this is happening while Tesla prepares to report its next set of delivery data in a few weeks. Any more delays or weak production numbers could put even more pressure on the company’s stock. Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot
