As demand for electric vehicles declines, billionaire Elon Musk has revealed intentions to lay off over 10% (or over 14,000 employees) of Tesla’s global staff.
Elon Musk made “the difficult decision” public in a note that was originally made public by the website Elektrek. 140,473 individuals work at Tesla, according to its annual report.
A report from Bloomberg claims that Musk sent an email to the workforce informing them of this.
In the memo reviewed by Bloomberg, the Tesla CEO justified the changes by pointing to redundant responsibilities and the need to decrease expenses.
Following reports that some managers had been instructed to give top management a list of names, Tesla employees conjectured over the weekend that layoffs would soon occur.
The layoffs coincide with a wider slowdown in EV sales and come just two weeks after Tesla revealed its first year-over-year sales decline in years.
Investors have been forewarned by the corporation that sales growth in 2024 may be “notably lower” than its declared target of expanding by 50% annually.
“We have done a thorough review of the organisation and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally,” said the email from Mr Musk.
“There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
“I would like to thank everyone who is departing Tesla for their hard work over the years. I’m deeply grateful for your many contributions to our mission and we wish you well in your future opportunities. It is very difficult to say goodbye,” he remarked.
We earlier reported that Elon Musk has been asked to pay a record $6 billion in legal fees, which would be paid in the company’s shares.