Musk forced to halt Tesla assembly line in struggling Berlin plant for 2 weeks over production problems

Production will be stopped for two weeks at the new factory in Germany, only a few months after it opened.

The factory has been struggling with a number of issues, including longer-than- anticipated manufacturing time, a lack of skilled workers and quality assurance issues that require expensive reworking of vehicles that had already rolled off the assembly line.

The plant was able to build 1,000 vehicles per week last month, but only about a tenth of what the factory can produce.

Once modifications to improve productivity are completed, output should resume later in July, according to local media. The plant is expected to shift from a two-shift operation to a three-shift one.

The temporary halt is unrelated to the recent news that Germany's automotive regulator called onTesla to issue a safety recall for more than 59,000 cars because of a technical problem in the emergency system.

The temporary drop in production at its Berlin-Brandenburg site comes at a sensitive time as CEO Musk recently branded the plant a'gigantic money furnace' that is currently costing the company billions.

Adding to investor concerns, the eccentric billionaire took an unusual 10-day holiday from posting on the social networking site, sparking fears that his lawyers may have ordered it.

China headwinds

For the first time since the launch of the Model Y, car sales fell for the quarter that ended in September.

The 254,700 vehicles that were delivered were below expectations that had already been lowered.

The drop was due to Chinese health authorities limiting production at its Shanghai plant.

The company said in its statement that production had hit a record in June. The level from December was 105,000 vehicles or more.

It has only 565,000 under its belt, leaving more than 800,000 still to be delivered during the second half.

The company will announce second-quarter results on July 20 and some investors and analysts fear that it will show a drop in earnings compared to the first quarter. The report could confirm analysts' suspicions that the Shanghai factory is the most profitable and efficient in the world, thanks to low wages and high productivity.

Since the beginning of the year, the company's shares have fallen more steeply than the broader tech-laden index. Two years ago, the public relations team was dissolved by the company.