The Tesla Model 3 may be lagging behind a much cheaper electric car in China, but production of the Model 3 continues at the Gigafactory in Shanghai. In California, however, production has apparently stopped for a couple of weeks.
As Bloomberg reports, "according to a person familiar with the matter," workers at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California have been told Model 3 production is being suspended temporarily. Manufacturing stopped on Feb. 22 and will remain offline until March 7. The workers this impacts have been told to use any available vacation time they have during this period, but will be paid for some of the days.
It's not clear why Model 3 production has been suspended and Tesla has yet to make an official statement on the matter. With other vehicle manufacturers scaling back production or stopping completely for weeks at a time recently due to chip shortages, it could be Tesla is dealing with the same problem. Ford, Fiat Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen have all been hit by a shortage of semiconductor parts.
New vehicles are packed with tech, and Tesla's vehicles especially rely on a wide-range of semiconductor components for navigation, self-driving features, and general vehicle management tasks.A chip shortage in any of those areas would mean vehicles simply can't be finished and sold.