The leadership at the Gigafactory has been changed and new goals have been set.
According to audio of a Thursday meeting and documents shared with CNBC, Hrushikesh "Hrushi" Sagar was promoted to oversee the Gigafactory after the former Vice President left. He will report directly to Musk and will also be in charge of the vehicle assembly plant.
Management changes, performance reviews, factory milestones, and aggressive new goals for the facility were some of the topics discussed by Sagar. He gave some information about the progress in the Austin, Texas, and Berlin, Germany, factories of the company.
"I really appreciate what Chris Lister did here, Chris's contribution." We are moving on to the next phase at the same time we are thankful for his contribution.
The big backup batteries, Powerwall and Megapack, are sold by the Energy division of the company.
During the meeting, he said that August was one of the best months for production in the history of the factory, and that 134,000 cars were made in the second quarter of 2020. He said that the factory was able to make 12,000 cars per week and was aiming for 14,000 per week.
He said that the team in Germany was able to produce 1,000 cars on a rolling seven day basis. The factory in Germany is expected to make 5,000 cars per week by the end of the year. Drive units were sent to Germany to aid in the effort.
The 1,000-per-week production rate was achieved by the new factory in Austin.
In the second quarter of the year, the Gigafactory produced 283,473 power trains.
You all played a large part. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Reno team.
Chris had 22 years of experience in precision manufacturing at the company. High volumes of scrap, fires and oil spills were part of the build-out and growing pains of the Gigafactory. He helped propelTesla to become the top-selling battery electric vehicle brand in the U.S. Requests for comment were not responded to by the two companies.
His new title is senior director of vehicle operations and manufacturing engineering.
Employees were told on Thursday that the factory should be thought of as their customer, since vehicle production there succeeds or is hampered by shipping volumes and quality.
While he doesn't plan to spend a lot of time in Reno, he will work closely with leaders at the plant, including Energy Leader Matt Reddick, who joined the company about six months ago, and site leader Eric Montgomery. Jeff Jackson, who is in charge of infrastructure for the facility, is one of the top leaders.
At the same meeting on Thursday, Montgomery told the employees that they needed to increase the output of high voltage battery packs to support the new production goals. August was the second-best month on record for production.
According to Reddick, the company can now make 42 giant Megapack batteries in seven days. Megapacks are about the size of a shipping container and are used for utility scale energy storage.
During the third quarter of 2022, the company expects to produce 442 Megapacks, an 85% growth over the previous three months.
A production rate of 6,500 Powerwalls has been achieved by the Gigafactory. Powerwalls are the smaller backup batteries for home use that Musk promoted on the social networking site. The heat wave caused the state to urge residents to reduce their power consumption.
To buy a solar roof from the company, customers had to buy a Powerwall as well. Montgomery said that the facility is on target to increase its production by 22% in the third quarter.
Jackson said that a new water treatment facility is being built on the site.
He said that the discharge of the site process water would be eliminated and that it would allow for 98% water recycling. It is in line with our mission.
Jackson talked about the solar roof. The infrastructure leader said that they have eightmegawatts on the roof that they can use on a daily basis.
There is a new food vendor on site that serves poke bowls, there is a meditation room for employees, and there is more EV charging stations around the facility.
Workers were told to reduce the number of labor hours it takes to produce a single unit of the products they build in their teams and to file more notices about how to improve safety and reduce costs.
The company is in the middle of an extensive, performance review process, and is moving past steep headcount cuts that took place in the second quarter.
One employee asked if their equity grants would be tied to the company's goals, but management said no. Managers should talk to their teams about their performance assessments by the end of the month.
Management was asked if and where the next factory would be. Lobbying activity by the company in Canada has caused speculation of a Canada-based plant.
"I have some idea on the candidates but I don't think I'm at liberty right now to reveal those candidates because of the confidentiality surrounding some of those things." He said there is an exciting future for the Americas.
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