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Minor Accident Temporarily Shuts Down Tesla Plant in Fremont, California

It makes sense that you can't build an electric car without electricity, doesn't it? The Tesla employees working at the Fremont plant in California found that out the hard way last Friday when a minor incident cut power for the whole factory.
Tesla Motors Fremont Plant 1 photo
Photo: Tesla Motors
On Friday morning, a large crane accidentally took out a power line running inside the factory, prompting the alarms to go off and the entire plant to come to a halt. All personnel was quickly evacuated off the premises.

Luckily, nobody was injured in any way, the only thing that actually received a blow being Tesla Motors' production that day, given how the Fremont plant is Tesla's main assembly line.

It wasn't an unscheduled holiday for all of the Fremont plant employees, though, as a company spokeswoman was quick to point out: "Most non-factory employees will work from our Palo Alto or other offices, or from home today."

The PG&E was quick on the site and repairs begun right away, so the workflow has since been restored. Tesla had no comment on how this minor incident affected its production or if it did at all.

As you may already know, Tesla Motors' fortunes aren't exactly on the roses, with the company reportedly losing an estimate of $4,000 (about 3,600 euos) on every Model S sold. You don't need an Economics degree to know that's not very good business.

On the other hand, the company isn't shy on making huge investments, mostly in its future Model X electric SUV. Up until now, of the 2015 planned investment fund worth 1.5 billion dollars, Tesla has spent roughly 900 million, which means it still has 600 million to play with.

As you can see, Tesla's finnancial situation is hardly stable, Elon Musk himself admitting he's looking for ways to inject capital into the company, with a new stock sale being a possibility. A minor incident like the one in its Fremont plant may not be enough to destabilize the company, but you can't help Tesla is walking on thin ice at the moment. Should it manage to get over this tricky period, the young company has all the chances to truly become profitable, but there's still a lot of ground to cover until then.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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