Elon Musk allegedly told staff via email that Tesla needed to be “hardcore” about headcount and cost reduction
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- Senior director at Supercharger business and head of new products are reportedly both out
- Same report claims hundreds more job losses are on the way
- Elon Musk emailed staff to tell them company needed to be “hardcore” about headcount and cost reduction
Working at Tesla right now must feel a bit like being employed in a real-life Squid Game. Unless you’re already, ooh, 64 years and 364 days old, the chances of you getting through to retirement have come down substantially. In the latest related news, two senior execs have reportedly left the company and hundreds more staff will soon be heading for the door.
Intel says that Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla’s Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, boss of its new vehicles program, are both leaving today, following an email sent to senior staff by CEO Elon Musk on Monday night.
Related: Facebook Cofounder Calls Tesla ‘Enron Now’, Musk Lashes Out With Slur
The report by The Information (via Reuters) also claims that every single person working for both Tinucci and Ho would soon be cut, including an estimated 500 people working within the Supercharger division. The automaker’s public policy team will also be canned, The Information says, presumably increasing the number of layoffs.
“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk wrote in the email, The Information claims. “While some on exec staff are taking this seriously,” he added, “most are not yet doing so.”
Tesla announced earlier this month that it would be slashing its workforce by 10 percent after reporting its first quarterly decline in four years. The automaker is battling a slowdown in the EV market and increased competition from Chinese rivals, which contributed to it delivering only 386,810 cars in Q1 of this year, a drop of 8.5 percent versus the same period in 2023.
And last week we learned that almost 2,700 of the roughly 14,000 job cuts would take place at Tesla’s Austin, TX, headquarters. The layoffs we learned of today are also likely to be included in the announced 10 percent reduction.
Musk explained that the 10 percent headcount cut was aimed at “cost reductions and increasing productivity.” Musk went on to say 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 asked Tesla for a comment and will update this story once we hear back.