Brief news
Tesla has cut its global staff to just over 121,000 people since 2023, including temporary workers, resulting in the company firing more than 14% of its workers so far this year. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced in April that the company would be letting go of more than 10% of its staff, with plans to give stock option grants to employees who do a great job. Tesla’s Supercharging team, led by Rebecca Tinucci, was one of the teams that was laid off. Tesla later hired some of those people back on LinkedIn. The bigger cuts come at the same time as Tesla’s sales are going down due to an ageing lineup of electric cars, more competition in China, and a losing appeal to the brand. Tesla’s yearly sales dropped by 9% in the first quarter, the biggest drop since 2012. Tesla’s Model Y was the best-selling car in the world in 2023, making the drop especially bad for them.
Illustrated News
Internal records show that Tesla has cut its global staff to just over 121,000 people since 2023. This includes temporary workers, which means that the carmaker has fired more than 14% of its workers so far this year.
The most recent number doesn’t come from exact salary data. Instead, it comes from a count by CNBC of how many people are on Tesla’s “everybody” email list as of June 17.
That day, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, sent an email to “everyone.” He told the workers, “Over the next few weeks, Tesla will be doing a full review to give stock option grants to employees who do a great job.” He also said that “anyone who does something outstanding for the company” will get an options grant. Reuters was the first to report that Tesla was planning to bring back options grants after pausing performance-based stock awards.
Musk told everyone in Tesla in April that the company would be letting go of more than 10% of its staff in an email sent to the whole company. At that point, people were already being laid off.
Bloomberg said that Musk wanted to lay off 20% of his staff. Musk said the answer could be even greater. He said that Tesla had hit a level of 25% to 30% inefficiency after “a long period of prosperity” that began in 2019. This was during the company’s first-quarter earnings call later in April.
Musk said on the call, “We’ve made some changes along the way.” “But they need to change how they run the business for the next stage of growth.”
In its fourth quarter report, Tesla said that it had 140,473 employees around the world at the end of December. This number includes both paid and hourly workers. Temporary workers are on the “everybody” email list. With about 121,000 employees, that means Tesla has cut its total staff by at least 14% since the end of 2023.
Tesla didn’t answer right away when asked for a statement.
For at least one reason, Musk’s cuts to staff went too far. Tesla got rid of its Supercharging team, which had hundreds of workers and was led by Rebecca Tinucci. Posts on LinkedIn say that the company later hired some of those people back.
The bigger cuts come at the same time that Tesla’s sales are going down. This is because the company has to deal with an ageing lineup of electric cars, more competition in China, and a brand that is losing its appeal, which a recent poll said was partly due to Musk’s “antics” and “political rants.” Tesla’s yearly sales dropped by 9% in the first quarter, which was the biggest drop since 2012.
Since two years ago, EV sales grew quickly across the auto business. But this year, growth slowed. Tesla’s Model Y was the best-selling car in the world in 2023, so the drop was especially bad for them.
A Tesla worker who requested anonymity told CNBC that given the second quarter’s performance, plant workers are concerned about more layoffs in July.
From Tesla, we can expect a report on production and sales for the second quarter in the first week of July.
Musk told investors that the company will soon release a new “Master Plan.” This would be his fourth, and on August 8, Tesla will show off its plan for a “dedicated robotaxi.”
Tesla shares were $181.71 on Friday, unchanged. The Nasdaq is up 18% this year, but the stock is down 27%.
Source : CNBC News
