Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.

The break is unusually long, the workers said. Production lines were up and running during the same period last year, they said.

The electric vehicle maker notified employees earlier this week. The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.

Tesla deliveries dropped 13% year over year during the first quarter.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    I’ve been arguing the Q1 result was cooked already from day 1 they came out. The actual result is probably way worse. One of the reasons is that Tesla has been producing way to many cars, and the cars on stock are overvalued to push the deficit into the future. Where they probably hope to camouflage the loss in other ways.
    But competition is intensifying, and Tesla is already at a very low margin on each car sold. Increased competition is at a point where Tesla will have to sell cars at a deficit. While at the same time write off value on stock. Or alternatively lose even more marketshare.
    The glory days where Tesla had the highest margin per car sold in the industry are long gone.

    • pikachus_ghost_uncle@lemmy.world
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      Same. They sent me a survey for owning my 3 for so long. In the survey I pretty much gave the car good reviews. Then it asked me if I would buy another and pretty much stated I would not buy another tesla if Elon musk is part of the company. I doubt anyone reads the surveys but hey here’s to hoping. 🗿

    • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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      Good choice? They keep bait and switching their own features, and their QC is garbage. Take Elon out of the equation and I still won’t buy their early access version of a car. I’m tired of companies treating end consumers as their play testers.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Uh oh!

    ETA - I look at Tesla’s stock and scratch my head. Still way too fucking high. It should come down to about 1/20th of where it is at. Toyota P/E ratio - 8.29. Tesla’s: 161.22.

    I mean…WTAF. There is some serious delusion going on with that stock price. Tesla’s “brand” is in the xitter. Are people just hoping that the U.S. government will prop them up at this point? Without extreme market manipulation by the likes of donvict, what other future does this shitty car company have?

  • superkret@feddit.org
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    5 days ago

    Didn’t Trump’s tariffs remove the unfair advantage of foreign cars so now superior US-made cars dominate the free market because they’re the best?
    And Tesla’s cars, with their Full Self Driving™ technology are literally 20 years ahead of the competition, so why aren’t people buying them??
    I don’t understand!

    • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
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      Well yeah, I mean without the whole embezzlement of personal data from various departments thing. Hes already got that.

  • Doorbook@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Tesla will announce their new military grade model that the defense will purchase thousands of cars using tax money.

    • Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      I mean, maybe that’s a good thing for any future resistance movement? The powers that be using highly flammable / explosive, unreliable, piece of shit glued together trucks that can’t handle a carwash.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      Absolutely, but you could also say that beginning was a year ago, where Tesla sales began to slump.
      Remember when we hear about poor sales this year compared to 2024, that 2024 was already a bad year for Tesla!

      • prole
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        It was probably when their “founder” did two Nazi salutes on stage at the inauguration of the President of the United States.

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    Looks like they arent paying their workers for the time either. Sounds like things are going really well there. I wonder if the workers who fall below 32 hours per week will get their full time benefits (like health care) cut. I’d bet yes.

    • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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      The article says it is paid…

      Edit: TIL that PTO means different in the US. Thanks for the explanations and downvotes 👍

      • Billiam@lemmy.world
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        The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.

        That wording is ambiguous, but given the alternative is “come in and do cleaning” my guess is “take paid time off” means workers have to burn their own vacation time if they don’t want to lose money. Otherwise, who in their right mind would volunteer to work if the company is offering paid furlough?

          • Billiam@lemmy.world
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            Also “give my employees paid time at home while business is slow” sounds exactly like the kind of magnanimity that Elon lacks.

            • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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              Yeah, he’s not going to let those lazy workers get paid for just sitting around at home, even if this whole debacle is entirely his fault.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        The article says it is paid…

        Yes but in USA words don’t mean what they say, they are merely spin on something worse.
        It actually means UNPAID time off, in normal human speak, but you can take some of your holiday and get paid for that.

        This would of course be illegal in EU and many other places, so an easy mistake to make unless you are brought up with the craziness of USA.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        5 days ago

        The article says it is paid…

        Well, yes and no. I mean, they get a paycheck if they use paid time off, but they’d need to use some of their supply of that, which is going to compete with things like time off for being sick, going on vacation, etc.

        • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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          Imagine having a set number of days for being sick…

          Better not get sick more than usual or you fucked, what a country, the american dream

      • leadore@lemmy.world
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        Take paid time off (PTO) means take your vacation time (or combined vacation/sick time). Otherwise no one would pick the “come in and clean or train” option.

        I once worked at a place where every year they shut down the week between Christmas and New Year’s and you had to take a week of your vacation time then whether you wanted to or not (and we only got 2 weeks/yr). I started working there the first week of December, so I was immediately in the hole for 1 week of vacation time. It was such bullshit.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          It could be worse, it could be the opposite. My brothers company does plant shutdowns in December and January, partly because too many people want off to keep the lines moving. However that’s also when they do maintenance, when they update the lines for new products, which my brothers company does does.

          So, is it better to have forced vacation in December and January so the plant can shut down, or mandatory work Christmas week and Fourth of July week because you’re the guy updating the lines?

  • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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    The workers, who are paid hourly, were told they could either take paid time off or come in for cleaning and training but would not be working on the production line.

    I mean, you’d be stupid to not come in, right? Who wants an involuntary unpaid vacation?

    • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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      I’ve done it before. When we were working 64 hour weeks? Fuck yeah I’m taking that time off. It also said they could use PTO. The thing is, everywhere I’ve ever worked, there was never just “one week” of it off. It’s like one week every 4-6 weeks as it’s slowing down. Hell, I’m on one now. It’s basically to avoid layoffs and losing experienced workers.

      Also, when you get a week off like that, it’s considered a layoff. So you can apply for unemployment for that time. If you keep calling in and reporting your working hours during the time that you’re back, you don’t have to refile for the next time it happens. Which will happen again in a couple weeks/months. The weird thing to me is that this is being reported on. It happens all the time, it could be for inventory adjustment, or because they’re having problems procuring parts due to tariffs. Or retooling/maintenance.

      My point is, this doesn’t mean a whole lot as of yet. If it happens several more times over the coming months, then that means something. Especially since the stock isn’t going down like it was.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        Tesla told Austin workers on its Model Y and Cybertruck lines to stay home for the week of Memorial Day, three workers told Business Insider.

        Setting aside the Musk/Trump shennanigans and their impact on the Tesla brand as a whole, though…they’re also talking about the Cybertruck.

        I can believe that maybe they keep demand for the Model Y at a sustained long-term level, but I have a hard time believing that the Cybertruck is going to take off. I mean, if there’s enough commonality across lines, then maybe they can use the Cybertruck workers elsewhere, but I just don’t think that the Cybertruck is going to become a big success.

        Like, at some point, they gotta cut their losses on that thing.

        https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/tesla-cybertruck-sales-musk-b2746688.html

        Tesla Cybertruck sales underperformed in Q1, dropping more than 50 percent compared to sales in Q4 of 2024, reflecting a larger theme for the electric vehicle maker, which has faced market volatility and decreasing sales as its CEO has taken a role in the Trump administration.

        In the last quarter, Tesla sold roughly 6,400 Cybertrucks – more than double the number from the same time last year but significantly fewer than the 12,900 sold in the final quarter of 2024, according to research firm Cox Automotive.

        It’s the second consecutive quarter Tesla has seen a dip in Cybertruck sales. Sales peaked during Q3 of 2024 with roughly 16,600 sold.

        The Cybertruck was introduced to the electric vehicle market in 2023, and at the time, Musk touted that more than one million people had paid a $100 refundable deposit to reserve one.

        It also dropped production targets for several Cybertruck lines over the last few months, workers familiar with the matter told Business Insider. Production lines have reportedly also been thinned out; now, some are said to be working at a fraction of their previous capacity.

        • P00ptart@lemmy.world
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          None of that surprises me. The cyber truck is a flop so it makes sense to “inventory adjust” a week for them. And you can likely expect that trend to continue. Nice of them to give time off for their workers to enjoy the spring weather, right? 😉

          The model Y just got a facelift, though. And whenever that happens, there are hiccups. That being said, you would think production would be going full bore for it from generated excitement from the refresh.They could have found a flaw that stopped production while they fix the issue, or it could be that the excitement that they expected isn’t there. Knowing Tesla, it’s likely both.

    • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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      What you quoted says “paid time off”

      Edit: TIL that PTO means different in the US. Thanks for the explanations and downvotes 👍

      • shottymcb@lemm.ee
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        Paid time off (PTO) is what American companies call paid vacation because they don’t offer paid sick leave. You have to use vacation time if you want to get paid for a sick Day

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      I frequently took unpaid time off at my jobs as I used all my paid time off for various vacations.

      Tesla might not accommodate such requests though, so a sudden week off might be something someone would jump at for a last minute vacation.

      • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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        Choosing to do so at a time convenient to you is something I can understand. For the benefit of your employer, no.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          Well if you decide you wanna do something it’s not at their benefit anymore.

          For the vast majority of people, coming in for the paid training/cleaning is the right choice.