Tesla’s Fremont factory to reduce workforce by 75% amid COVID-19 concerns

Tesla will reduce their Fremont factory workforce from 10,000 employees to just 2,500 due to COVID-19, it has been confirmed. A series of tweets by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office led many to believe that the west-coast plant would be closing down fully, as they classed Tesla as ‘not essential’ amid the pandemic that has so far claimed over 9,000 lives globally. However, negotiations between the two parties have since resulted in Tesla reducing its Fremont factory workforce by three quarters and remaining open.

Significant production delays are expected due to this slash, with Electrek.co predicting only around 1,000 to 2,000 cars will be made a week with the reduced workforce. This comes as Tesla’s share price, like many other firms, has taken a huge hit. This time last month stock surged to over $900 a share, however in the past week in particular it has rapidly fallen, standing at $370 a share at time of writing. This sudden decline in value due to Coronavirus will have a serious knock-on-effect for Elon Musk in particular, who was promised a $350 million pay day by investors if he can keep the company’s value at an average of $100 billion for 6 months, a value which Tesla dropped below last Friday.

With oil prices falling, Tesla sales could also take a significant hit, however they already have a large back-log of pre-orders, particularly for the Model Y, to get through now. Either way, testing times for Tesla. How do you think they will fair over the coming weeks and months? Let us know your thoughts in the replies section below.