Bloomberg Market Report

Tesla temporarily suspended production of the Model 3 electric sedan for a week in late February, a planned breather that ultimately may help increase output of the closely watched vehicle.

Model 3 production in Fremont was idled from Feb. 20 to 24, according to the company. The Palo Alto automaker makes the Model S sedan, Model X sport utility vehicle and Model 3 at that site and batteries at a plant known as the Gigafactory east of Reno.

“Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime in both Fremont and Gigafactory 1,” a Tesla spokesman said in an email. “These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates. This is not unusual and is in fact common in production ramps like this.”