Author: Neal E. Boudette / Source: New York Times
In scrambling to ramp up production of its Model 3 electric car, Tesla has run into trouble with robots and automated machinery, a need for more workers and a shortage of battery packs.
Now Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, suspects his company might have a more unusual problem: sabotage.
In an email sent to employees late Sunday night, Mr. Musk said a disgruntled worker had broken into the company’s computer systems in an attempt to disrupt manufacturing.
“I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations,” he wrote. “This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties.”
While it was not clear whether the operations in question were at its assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., its battery plant near Reno, Nev., or elsewhere, this new disruption comes as Tesla is racing to streamline operations on the assembly line that produces the Model 3. Mr. Musk is counting on the midsize Model 3 to drive revenue higher, stabilize Tesla’s finances and enable the company to begin generating profits.
He has said that Tesla will make money in the second half of the year if it is able to produce 5,000 or more Model 3s a week, a level that he predicted would be reached by the end of the month. At the company’s shareholder meeting this month, Mr. Musk said the company had increased its output to about 3,500 Model 3s a week, up from around 2,000 a week in early May.
Tesla seemingly has no shortage of customers ready to buy the car. It took $1,000 deposits from nearly 400,000 people even before it began making the Model 3 last summer. A large portion of those customers, however, were expecting to buy a basic version that is priced at $35,000 but has not yet gone into production. For now, the company is making versions that sell for $50,000 and more.
“What versions they are producing are almost as important as how many they are producing a week,” said Rebecca Lindland, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, an automotive research firm….
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