Coronavirus: Tesla’s Elon Musk offers to produce ventilators

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the company may start producing ventilators to help ease the US shortage and assist hospitals treating coronavirus patients.

The electric vehicle maker has told employees it lowered the number of workers at its California factory to comply with government guidelines to curb the spread of covid-19.

In an email to employees late on Wednesday night, Tesla said it had asked only “essential employees” to report to its Bay Area facilities, allowing all others to work from home with San Francisco on virtual lockdown. 

In a previous email to employees on Monday, Tesla described essential staff as all those directly supporting factory production, vehicle deliveries and service, saying people in those areas should continue to report to work. 

US automakers Ford Motor, General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said they were shuttering their US plants, as well as factories in Canada and Mexico, to stop the spread of coronavirus. 

At Tesla, extra precautions are now being taken to try to protect workers from the highly contagious respiratory illness that has infected nearly 9,000 Americans. 

Beginning today, workers will receive masks and have their temperature checked prior to entry, Wednesday night’s email said, adding that more hygiene stations will be added and the cleaning frequency of work areas be increased. 

The electric carmaker also said it had not laid off anyone amid the coronavirus outbreak. Tesla on Thursday did not respond to a request for comment. 

A factory employee requesting anonymity told Reuters vehicle production appeared to continue unchanged, with workers at the assembly lines working in close proximity. 

Tesla’s sole U.S. auto factory employs more than 10,000 workers, with annualised production of slightly more than 415,000 units by the fourth quarter.

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The coronavirus outbreak comes as Tesla ramps up production of its Model Y sport utility vehicle at the factory, which Musk has said will see higher demand than all of Tesla’s other models combined. 

A spokesman for Alameda county, where the factory is based, on Wednesday said Tesla had agreed to reduce the number of active workers at its factory to around 2,500. But the official said discussions were ongoing about halting vehicle production. 

“It sounds to me like they very well could still be making cars. We are continuing to stress to them that they must move to minimum basic operations, if they are still making cars,” the spokesman said. 

Alameda County, where the factory is based, is one of six covered by an order from regional officials to “shelter in place,” which limits activity, travel and business functions to only the most essential, and advises people to stay home except for the most crucial reasons. 

Minimum basic operations under the county’s order include maintaining the value of inventory, ensuring security and processing payroll and employee benefits. 

The county sheriff’s office said on Tuesday afternoon Tesla was not considered an essential business under that order and cannot continue to operate its factory normally. 

Separately on Thursday, hundreds of Twitter users welcomed an offer by Musk to make ventilators for coronavirus sufferers, after the United States appealed for donations of respirator masks to combat a shortage.

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