Tesla started producing Model Y electric crossovers at its new Giga Texas plant in April 2022, but the facility has seen a slow ramp up since then.
In June, Tesla announced a production rate of 1,000 Model Ys a week at the plant and then confirmed the manufacturing of the 10,000th vehicle in September. That said, the company hasn't confirmed a production rate of 2,000 units per week yet, like it did for Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg last month.
Things may change dramatically for the better the next quarter, a report from Electrek claims. Citing "a reliable source familiar with the matter," the website claims Tesla is gearing up to build 75,000 Model Y vehicles at Gigafactory Texas in the first quarter of 2023; that would equate to a production rate of 5,000 units per week throughout the whole quarter.
While this is an unconfirmed rumor for now, it does have some credibility as 5,000 units per week is generally Tesla's goal for volume production. In addition, 5,000 vehicles per week is likely the threshold the company aims to reach with the Model Y in Austin before shifting its focus to manufacturing the Cybertruck.
Gallery: Tesla Giga Texas (Tesla Gigafactory 5)
The same source said that even though Tesla is preparing for an output of 75,000 Model Y EVs in Q1 2023, it is not in a rush to get there during the current quarter as it is still setting up the logistics that will allow it to handle that kind of volume increase in the United States.
On a separate note, sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla is dealing with some level of cancellations in the US right now due to long wait times. This is allegedly leading to some customers' statuses changing between the time they place their order and the actual delivery of the vehicle.
In addition, some customers are looking to push their deliveries into next year to secure the upcoming EV tax credit enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act. However, Tesla is reportedly not very flexible when it comes to that, and it is holding its customers to their order contracts. This is preventing them from pushing deliveries into 2023, hence the cancellations.
Because of these combined factors, Tesla is said to fear ending up with a lot of vehicles in its US inventory, something that also happened in the last quarter.
