Just a few months after Elon Musk stunned auto industry experts by erecting a tent at the company’s Fremont facility to handle Model 3 production, Tesla is at it again.

According to Bloomberg, which tracked down a new permit application filed last month with the city of Fremont, CAl, the electric-car maker has applied to build a 4,000-square-foot tent where vehicles will be wrapped in protective material for transit. The new structure will be constructed for the south lot of Tesla’s outbound logistics yard.

Just four months ago, in June, Tesla built a general assembly line for the Model 3 sedan underneath a massive outdoor tent near its Fremont vehicle factory’s paint shop. While the move was widely derided by auto-manufacturing experts, it played a key role in boosting production beginning late in the second quarter. It also appears to have resulted in a subpar final product which is exposed to the elements and has led to numerous complaints about the Model 3’s quality control and build status.

The wrapping tent will seek to address a recurring criticism lobbed at the company by the same short sellers who CEO Elon Musk has publicly expressed a desire to “burn”, and did so with his fraudulent attempt to boost TSLA stock price by announcing a non-existant going private deal.

In recent months, Tesla skeptics – this site included – have shown images of parking lots packed with Tesla vehicles that are uncovered and exposed to the elements as the carmaker has been going through what Musk recently said on Twitter was “delivery logistics hell.”

Unwrapped Teslas have also been photographed on trailers that are transporting them to stores.

Tesla is slated to report third-quarter production and delivery figures early this week. Optimism about the results and the outcome of Musk’s settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission requires him to step down as chairman – but remain as CEO – sent the company shares soaring as much as 18 percent Monday, the biggest intraday jump since February 2014.



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