Tesla’s German plant struggles to meet demand after price cuts

Tesla needs to speed up production at its German factory after the automaker’s recent price cuts increased delivery times to customers, a local politician said.

The expected delivery of the basic basic Model Y to customers in Germany is now February-March, according to Tesla’s website, as opposed to January-March before a price cut of 17 percent last week.

The expected delivery of the Long Range and Performance vehicles, which saw smaller price cuts of 4 percent and 1 percent respectively, remains January-March, according to the website.

Production at Tesla’s factory in Gruenheide near Berlin should be sped up to reduce customer waiting times, the economy minister of the state in which the factory is located said.

Output “has to grow up a bit more,” Brandenburg’s Economy Minister Joerg Steinbach said on Thursday at a podium discussion organized by German union IG Metall on industrial prospects for eastern Germany.

Earlier this month Tesla launched a price war against its rivals after slashing prices on its electric vehicles in Europe and the U.S.

Tesla is recruiting 200 to 300 people a week to work in the Gruenheide plant even as other companies in the region struggled to find talent, Steinbach said, with the factory’s labor force now at about 9,000 people.

IG Metall said at a recent conference that workers had complained about long working hours and frequent weekend shifts as the automaker attempts to speed up production.

Tesla reached an output of 3,000 cars per week in late December, more than two months later than planned. The Gruenheide model builds the Model Y for European markets.