We know you have already seen this Munro & Associates video here at InsideEVs. What you don’t know is where Tesla produces the innovative cast parts Munro is so excited to see in the Model Y teardown process. The concern Tesla employees expressed for having to work at the Lathrop facilities revealed that the company is producing the innovative cast parts there. Both the company and employees confirmed this information.

If you check the letter Tesla sent to Lathrop City Council members last March 30, you’ll see it mentions something important for this story right at the beginning. This is the text we want you to pay attention to:

“I am writing to respond to concerns expressed by someone representing to be a Tesla employee about our casting manufacturing operations occurring at 18280 Harlan Road in Lathrop. To be clear, we are not certain if this individual is actually a Tesla employee, but received a similar email from the same email address. Regardless, we are happy to can provide you with information about our operations and the COVID-19 measures we have implemented to protect our employees.”

Did you see that it is performing “casting manufacturing operations” there? That could be related to any cast part Tesla cars may have, but that is not what the employees told us.

One of them said he did not get why Tesla wanted them to keep pushing Model Y parts if Fremont was closed. We guess that Tesla may ship them to China to start the Model Y production there. As you may probably know, Giga Shanghai is back to business after the lockdown of a little more than one week. Tesla probably counts on it to keep selling cars even with Fremont temporarily halted.

Tesla Claims To Protect Lathrop Workers: More Workers Say It Doesn’t

Sandy Munro just mentioned the “gigantic aluminum casting that takes probably a third of the back end” of the Model Y. He also said to be thrilled with that and that Tesla cast and place “things that cost us time and money.” 

Munro will only be able to tell us more about that when the teardown is complete, but we can’t wait to hear from him. Again, it appears Tesla’s news will be shared by people other than Tesla’s. It could be so different if the company were more transparent...

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