Tesla Idles Cybertruck And Model Y Production

Both the Tesla Model Y and Cybertruck will see production idled as uncertainty swirls around the American automaker. This comes as the company finally starts taking Cybertruck trade-ins, with values confirmed to be abysmal and the Model Y is shown to also lose a lot of value on the used market.

Ford is struggling with rare earth mineral shortages.

The assembly lines at Tesla’s Austin Gigafactory will come screeching to a halt on June 30. While the company won’t talk much about the action, which is the third time the facility has been idled in the past year, the pause is expected to only last a week.

While some theorize the production pause is to help alleviate an oversupply of new vehicles, something we’ve seen other automakers grapple with lately, Tesla told employees it’s being done for maintenance and improvements to the production line, reports, CBT News.

Supposedly, production in Austin will increase after the shutdown, the new Cybercab will be built at the facility, which could be the reason for the weeklong idling.

In the meantime, Tesla robotaxi service will start at first with Model Ys roaming the streets of Austin on June 22. It will start small with under two dozen vehicles ferrying people around.

But Elon Musk, who’s known to talk big about things, says by June 28 cars should be able to drive themselves from the factories to customers’ homes for delivery. We’ll believe that when we see it, just like the battery swapping stations and robotic snake charging cable from back in the day.

While much of the media focuses heavily on the struggles of Tesla these days, it simply reflects what the auto industry as a whole is grappling with: fewer people can or are even willing to buy new cars as prices keep inflating while economic uncertainty swirls around them.

Images via Tesla