A leaked memo suggests more than 14,000 staff will be cut from Tesla’s global operations, while the company’s share price has dropped by roughly 30pc this year.
Electric vehicle giant Tesla is planning to cut more than 10pc of its staff amid a drop in vehicle sales, according to a leaked memo seen by multiple media outlets.
The memo comes from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and claims the job cuts are part of plans to reduce costs and increase productivity, in response to the company’s rapid growth in recent years. This memo was seen by Reuters, while the full text was shared by Electrek.
In the memo, Musk claims there has been a “duplication of roles and job functions” as a result of the company’s growth and that the company will cut more than 10pc of its staff globally. Tesla had more than 140,000 staff as of December 2023, suggesting the layoffs will impact more than 14,000 employees worldwide.
“There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,” Musk said in the leaked memo. “This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
It is unclear which roles are being impacted or if any Irish jobs will be affected. Tesla announced the opening of its second Irish centre in Cork last September, following on from the Irish salesroom it opened in Dublin back in 2017.
Telsa has been contacted for comment but did not respond to SiliconRepublic.com at time of publication.
The latest job cuts come amid an interesting couple of years for the EV company. In April 2023, the company reported a slump in gross profits of 17pc to $4.51bn in the first quarter of the year, despite a boost of 24pc in revenue. However, it did see a boost in car sales, attributed to price cuts invoked by the EV maker.
But fortunes took a turn for Tesla towards the end of 2023, as Chinese rival BYD beat Tesla in its fourth-quarter sales for the first time. The Chinese EV maker also knocked Tesla off its pedestal as the world’s leading manufacturer of BEVs in July 2022.
Earlier this month, Tesla posted a decline in quarterly deliveries for the first time in nearly four years and missed Wall Street estimates. This caused a drop in the share price for the company, which have fallen by roughly 30pc since the start of 2024.
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