Gary Zhou 
Tesla will need to “rally hard to recover” from a “very tough quarter,” according to CEO Elon Musk’s internal email sent to employees last night. Tesla battled extensive shutdowns at its most productive manufacturing plant Gigafactory Shanghai earlier this quarter, which will require an extra push of effort from employees as Q2 comes to a close.
“This has been a very tough quarter, primarily due to supply chain and production challenges in China,” Musk said in an email to Tesla workers, which was first seen by Electrek. “So we need to rally hard to recover!”
2022’s second quarter was anything but normal for most automakers, Tesla included. While the industry as a whole continues to struggle with supply chain issues and materials shortages, Tesla felt the effects slightly harder than other car companies. Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai facility was closed for three weeks in April due to a widespread lockdown in China after a spike in COVID-19 cases. Tesla reported a 97.7 percent decrease in production from March to April due to the shutdown. Tesla sold 65,814 units in March and just 1,512 units in April as lockdowns kept the factory dormant for three weeks.
Now that Shanghai has returned to full operating capacity, Musk is pushing for the ccompany’sworkers to dig a little deeper with just seventeen days left in Q2. Musk said the Fremont factory achieved an all-time record production day recently, and Berlin made nearly 1,000 units last week. “Shanghai is returning to full strength and Austin is spooling up. Onward to victory!” Musk said in the email.
The employment situation at Tesla has required Musk to eliminate work-from-home positions as a company-wide email that followed a communication to only company executives said workers will be required to spend 40 hours per week at their local Tesla branch.
“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week. Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” Musk said in an email to all Tesla employees on June 1.
The sudden push for in-office work may have something to do with Tesla’ssomewhat regularly-planned end-of-quarter delivery and production blitzes, which require an all-hands-on-deck attitude to accomplish. Musk has even joined production lines to assist Tesla in maintaining manufacturing growth, and Musk more than certainly knows that the automaker’s streak of nine consecutive quarters of growth in deliveries is in jeopardy following Shanghai’sshutdown.
