Assembly line workers at a Tesla production plant that makes Cybertrucks were told to take the next three days off, without explanation, and the Tesla rumor mill says it may be because of declining sales.
While electric car company Tesla has a production plant in Fremont, the ugly and highly divisive Cybertrucks are not produced there. Those horrendous things are made at a plant called the GigaFactory near Austin, Texas. And there is not much work being done at the GigaFactory, as Business Insider reports that production workers there were told on Monday to just take the next three days off, in an announcement that gave no reason for the work furlough.
"On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week (Dec. 3-5), you do not need to report to work," the company said in a memo to workers, per Business Insider. Workers were told they'd be paid for the three days, and to return to work on Friday, December 6.
KRON4 points out that three people died last week in a Cybertruck fire in Piedmont after the car hit a concrete wall, but that’s probably not the reason for the work cancellation (though federal regulators are probing that incident, according to the Chronicle). The more likely reason, as the electric car site Elektrek speculates, is that demand for Cybertrucks appears to be sharply down.
Business Insider spoke to workers at the Austin plant who “said their schedule had been inconsistent since late October.” Others claimed they’d been sent home upon arrival to work, or given training activities instead of working the production line, or even assigned cleaning tasks.
"When I started at Tesla you could expect to get overtime pay, now I feel lucky to get 40 hours," one longtime worker at the Cybertruck plant told Business Insider.
The demand was strong once the Cybertruck had its (frequently delayed) release in 2023, with supposedly two million people pre-ordering the vehicle. And it may have become the most popular electric truck in the US, in the second quarter of 2024, at least. But now that all of the Elon Musk fanboys have theirs, there does not appear to be much crossover demand from general consumers. Plus it does not help that there have been six different Cybertruck recalls since the truck’s initial release.
Image: AUSTIN, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 14: A Tesla Cybertruck is parked outside of a dealership on November 14, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Tesla has issued its 6th recall for its Cybertruck line this year. A faulty part having potential to lead to a loss of power is the stated issue for the current recall. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
