Tesla will stop ‘very shortly’ with the assembly of the Model S and Model X in Tilburg. As a result, up to 96 jobs are in jeopardy related to the assembly process.
A source within Tesla confirms the news opposite NU.nl. The staff was briefed earlier on Thursday. The Tesla’s Model S and X were upgraded at the end of January, which changed the production process in the United States so that assembly in the Netherlands is no longer possible. Despite the fact that the external changes to the Model S and Model X are limited, a lot has been done under the skin. The technology has also been re-examined, while the interior is completely different. The assembly as it is carried out in Tilburg can therefore no longer technically take place on an industrial scale at this location. Whether the assembly will possibly be moved to Tesla’s new factory near Berlin, or whether the Model S and X will be shipped from the US from now on, is not yet clear.
According to reports, Tesla is in consultation with the works council to find another position for the staff affected by the discontinuation of the assembly. First of all, we will look at which activities are growing in the Netherlands. The assembly hall may be given a different purpose.
The renewed Model S and Model X are expected to be delivered for the first time in the Netherlands in November of this year, which means that the supply of cars of the current generation to the assembly site in Tilburg will be stopped shortly. The assembly hall was opened in 2015 in the presence of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and then Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp.
More activities than assembly
In Tilburg, Tesla not only assembles cars, the American company also has a spray shop, parts warehouse and a so-called ‘remanufacturing center’, where old or used parts are brought to the quality level of new parts. Of the 1,510 people who work at Tesla in the Netherlands, 540 work in Tilburg.
The Tilburg location was the busiest in 2018. At the time, the Model S and Model X were very popular with business drivers because of favorable addition rules. That year, 5,622 and 2,963 copies were registered in the Netherlands respectively. In 2020, 292 copies of the Model S were registered, compared to 299 of the Model X.