Logistics Hell: Tesla Is “Stuck” With Up To 20,000 Cars On Mysterious “Factory Hold” In Fremont

When it rains, it pours.

And in addition to having to deal with the entire country of China’s disapproval, on top of Ford’s new electric pickup being featured by and driven in by the President of the United States, and having to deal with a continued slew of neverending mysterious accidents involving Teslas, all while dealing with the wrath of the bitcoin community, it appears Tesla is once again back in logistics hell. 

The company reportedly has 10,000 electric cars at Fremont that are on a “containment hold” and can’t be delivered to customers – at least that’s the excuse du jour the pro-Tesla lot over at electrek appears to be offering up on behalf of the company this week. 

Also, in what can be described as wonderful timing for a public company, the “logistical nightmare” this is going to create will be “at the end of the quarter”, according to the report.

“Since Tesla owns its entire distribution network and doesn’t sell to third-party dealers, the automaker has been known to have difficult end-of-quarters where it is trying to deliver as many vehicles from the factory to customers in order to keep its inventory low,” electrek reported.

Tesla employees are expecting a “crazy” end to Q2 due to the supply chain issue, the report says. 

Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are being put on a containment hold, but the reason why is unclear. Sources close to the company have speculated that “an unknown part” is missing, the report says. Regardless, the hold means that the vehicles cannot be delivered. 

The report also notes that up to 20,000 vehicles could be affected and that the number “could go up” as there was “no known fixes nor a timeline for a fix” as of early this week. 

One of the better parts of electrek’s analysis, however, wasn’t just the obviously leaked excuse from the company. It was the blog’s “best case scenario” as a result of the bottleneck:

“The way I see it, the best case scenario is a massive logistical nightmare on top of the end-of-the-quarter push,” editor Fred Lambert wrote.

Thanks for the bout of optimism, Fred.