What he says: “Both the Berlin and Austin factories are giant money ovens right now,” Musk said in an interview with Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley, an official Tesla-recognized club, recorded May 31st. “It really is like a giant roar, which is the sound of money on fire.” Why it matters: Musk told Bloomberg earlier this week that supply constraints are the biggest growth threat for Tesla, as he confirmed job cuts of up to 3.5%. The big picture: Musk told the Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley interview that pandemic-related outages in China this year had proved “very, very difficult” for both the Tesla plant in Shanghai and other plants elsewhere. .
The Austin plant in particular was “losing crazy money” as it faced challenges to produce Tesla’s new 4680 batteries and “the tools needed” to make conventional 2170 batteries “were stuck in China,” Musk said. “The vast majority of our concern is, how will we keep the factories running so that we can pay people and not go bankrupt?” he said.
The bubble of our thinking, through Axios’ Joann Muller: Musk has often complained about how hard the construction is. Now, with the current financial situation, he is reminded again.
