When Tesla revealed the first production level Model 3 to the world in July last year, the company outlined an ambitious plan to manufacture 20 000 vehicles by the end of 2017. Unfortunately, it has not been able to deliver, and according to reports by CNBC it may have something to do with the inner workings of their Gigafactory.

The largest manufacturing plant of its kind, the Gigafactory is still under construction in some parts, which was one of the reasons CEO Elon Musk gave for the company's inability to ship large numbers of the Model 3 late last year.

As it turns out, CNBC's sources tell a different story, with workers from Panasonic reportedly being brought in to help with the manufacture of batteries. This is not what many were led to believe about the Gigafactory, with the process said to be fully automated.

Added to this, the workers are also finding it difficult to put together the batteries, with the placement of cooling tubes between rows of lithium-ion cells proving to be a particular hurdle, according to CNBC. In response to the CNBC report, Tesla gave the following comment to The Verge. "This is an extremely misinformed and misleading article."

With Tesla falling well short of its delivery goals, only shipping 1 550 Model 3s to customers in 2017, one can only hope that the issues at the Gigafactory have been exaggerated and the company can rectify its manufacturing procedures.