Tesla laid off roughly 500 employees last week, and now there’s word of more job losses.
The electric car manufacturer made a major announcement last month saying it would cut slash its global workforce to rein in operating costs. It appears those efforts are ongoing, as the company brought another round of layoffs just last week effectively dissolving its charging department, responsible for development of its Supercharger network. A report from Electrek Monday noted the latest cuts in Tesla’s engineering, software development and service departments, according to an email citing anonymous sources close to the matter.
Those workers told the outlet that employees received alarming “employment status” emails over the weekend.
CEO Elon Musk has mentioned in previous company emails that the automaker is “restructuring for the next phase of growth”, saying that Tesla’s rapid growth — it hired more than 40,000 additional employees for more than 140,000 total between late 2021 and 2023 — was the driving force necessitating the layoffs. However, the company’s weaker sales volumes in early 2024 are also likely to have contributed to the decision, as Tesla posted worse-than-expected financial results in its latest earnings report.
Some divisions within Tesla are experiencing far worse than the 10% figure early reports last month noted. In fact, certain areas could see up to a 20% reduction in staff by the time these layoffs have abated. That said, it doesn’t appear the cuts are going to let up, at least not in the immediate future.
All the while, Tesla is aiming to ramp up production and deliveries of its latest model, the Cybertruck, which TFL Studios bought and has been testing over the past couple weeks, including in the road trip video below. We do wonder how these cuts are going to impact the ownership experience in the coming months, and will provide what updates we can as we know more (either firsthand or through subsequent announcements or news reports).
