Tesla workers in Austin are about to get a major break this Memorial Day
According to a new report published by Business Insider, electric car manufacturer Tesla is planning a major production pause of Cybertruck and Model Y cars at its Austin, Texas factory. Three workers working on the respective production lines told the publication that Tesla told workers to stay home for Memorial Day, an unusually long break for them.
The workers who spoke to BI said they were notified about the decision early last week. They are paid hourly and were told they could take paid time off or come into the factory for cleaning and training, but wouldn’t be assembling any cars on the production line.
Getty Images
The long break is the latest in a pattern affecting Austin factory workers
It isn’t the first time Tesla has attempted to reduce Cybertruck output. In April, Tesla reduced production targets for the Cybertruck and moved some workers off its production line to work on other Tesla models, while in December, it shut the line for three days.
However, workers who spoke to Business Insider noted that the long break around Memorial Day comes amid an unusual pattern of inconsistent hours and scheduling that has persisted since February. Some of them indicated that supervisors sent them home early during the workday on multiple occasions.
The sources also stated that management at the Austin factory began cracking down on overtime hours. Two workers said that factory management told them they could eventually face disciplinary action if they were found clocking in overtime hours. In addition, a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice issued by the Texas Workforce Commission earlier this month noted that Trigo, a third-party contractor who licenses employees to Tesla, laid off 50 workers at the Austin factory.
Tesla faces a “fork in the road,” an influential analyst said
The news about the Cybertruck factory comes shortly after Tesla reported some abysmal financial and delivery numbers for the first quarter of 2025.
Last month, Tesla reported that during Q1 2025, it delivered 336,681 vehicles, a 13% year-over-year drop. At the same time, its factories produced 362,615 vehicles; nearly 26,000 more EVs than it delivered. In its earnings report, Tesla reported that profits fell 71% to $409 million, a far cry from the $1.39 billion figure during the same quarter just a year prior.
Jetcity image – Adobe Stock Images
Shortly after Q1 2025 Tesla delivery figures went out, social media figure and influential Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives posted on the social media platform X that the numbers were a “fork in the road moment” for the electric vehicle company.
“We knew 1Q Tesla deliveries would be soft, but these numbers were bad,” he said. “We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses…they were a disaster on every metric. Refresh issues but brand crisis key.”
Final thoughts
I encounter both Tesla Cybertrucks and Model Ys regularly; however, the situation regarding them, especially the latter, is pretty surprising. According to a recent report by Electrek, Cybertruck inventory has reached upwards of 10,000 units sitting on lots near Tesla retail locations. These Cybertrucks have been sitting for a worryingly long time. Houston-area Cybertruck owner, Reza Soltani, posted on the Cybertruck Owner’s Club Facebook group that Tesla sold him a car that had been sitting for about four months on the same lot before giving him the keys.
“I placed an order for a Cybertruck on Friday, and they instantly assigned me a VIN and are ready to deliver the car this week in Houston,” he said. “The car was built on January 8th. It’s been sitting out in the Tesla parking lot for 4 months.”
Aesthetics opinions aside, I think that Tesla needs to offer some significant discounts or offer sales to fleets to offload the Cybertrucks, or it risks building an unmanageable backlog of cars that it can’t sell.
