If in December someone would say that Tesla is @7k production, that person would receive 20 likes, 15 loves etc. and those who questioned that they are close to that number sustained would get a bunch of disagrees. I'm sure there are tons of posts like that if we go back.
So, when Elon says we're far from 7k and the response is "how can that be confusing to anyone"... Well, I think this is in line with Bloomberg's approach of massaging their delivery numbers and is not honest.
I did hear the message that the are working on costs and the reason is obvious - $35k car.
It did not get across so clearly to me that the preparation for recession is the reason for keeping production numbers down.
If you have the quote, I'm happy to re-read it.
Btw, when I questioned the "tiny profit" there were many unproductive responses too and I believe I stated myself first the 2 reasons that Elon mentioned - in-transit cars & restructuring costs.
@ReflexFunds had interesting points too, which Elon did not speak of.
So...while your answer is applicable, it doesn't look like the primary reason. Surely they can ramp down in a recession if there's a need to do that, but given 500k recession demand estimate, Freemont would not be at that level yet.
I'll wait to see if somebody comes up with a better explanation.
