Elon Musk reportedly told employees via email that Tesla needed to be “tough” on staff numbers and cost cutting
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- According to reports, both the senior director of the Supercharger business and the head of new products have left
- The same report claims hundreds more job losses are on the way
- Elon Musk sent an email to employees to tell them the company needed to get “tough” on staffing levels and cutting costs
Working at Tesla must feel a bit like playing a real Squid Game at the moment. Unless you are already 64 years and 364 days old, your chances of reaching retirement have decreased significantly. According to the latest news, two senior executives have reportedly left the company and hundreds more employees will soon be heading for the door.
According to Intel, Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla’s supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, head of its new car program, are both leaving the company today after CEO Elon Musk sent an email to senior employees on Monday evening.
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The report from The information (above Reuters) also claims that every single person who works for both Tinucci and Ho would soon be fired, including an estimated 500 people who work in the Supercharger department. According to The Information, the automaker’s public policy team will also be laid off, which will likely increase the number of layoffs.
“Hopefully these actions make it clear that we need to work absolutely hard on staffing levels and cost reductions,” Musk wrote in the email, according to The Information. “While some leaders are taking this seriously,” he added, “most are not yet.”
Tesla announced earlier this month that it would cut its workforce by 10 percent after reporting its first quarterly decline in four years. The automaker is struggling with a slowdown in the electric vehicle market and increasing competition from Chinese rivals, which led it to deliver just 386,810 cars in the first quarter of this year, down 8.5 percent from the same period in 2023.
And last week we learned that nearly 2,700 of the approximately 14,000 job cuts would take place at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The layoffs we learned about today will also likely be included in the announced 10 percent reduction.
Musk explained that the 10 percent workforce reduction was aimed at “cutting costs and increasing productivity.” Musk further said that the job cuts were decided after a thorough review of the organization. “There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,” he wrote.
We’ve reached out to Tesla for comment and will update this story when we hear back.