Tesla appears to have restarted production at its Fremont factory, just a few days after we first reported production had been halted for what we presumed were production line upgrades.
Earlier this week a drone flyover of the Fremont factory revealed little to no activity happening at the sprawling facility. The logistics lot, which is usually packed with new cars waiting to be hauled off on car carriers, was virtually empty with the entry gate closed. In addition the casting and manufacturing segments of the plant were equally quiet.
The shut down was expected after CEO Elon Musk revealed in the company’s Q2 earnings call that all of Tesla’s factories around the world would experience some idle time in Q3 for upgrades. It was presumed that those upgrades would include changes to the production lines to accommodate the new Project Highland Model 3 refresh, which is expected to be released later this year.
However after only a few days of downtime, it appears as though the factory has already resumed production, at least partially. In another drone flyover on Thursday, the logistics lot had been reopened with dozens of newly built cars packing the lot, and several car carriers being loaded up. Other areas of the factory showed signs of life, compared to just a few days earlier.
According to the drone pilot, he believes production at Fremont was only paused for two days, which doesn’t seem like enough time for the upgrades required to build the new Model 3. That means the pause was likely for production line maintenance, so we may see another shut down soon for Project Highland.
You can watch the full drone flyover below.
