Tesla would lay off over 10% of its global workforce, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday showed, as the EV maker grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles.
Separately, the Electrek website reported Tesla earlier had told managers to identify critical employees and had paused some stock rewards while canceling some workers’ annual reviews. It had also reduced production at its Gigafactory Shanghai.
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Electrek reported rumors at the weekend had indicated layoffs could be as high as 20% and Tesla would shorten Cybertruck production shifts at Gigafactory Texas (despite CEO Elon Musk’s recent insistence Cybertruck is currently production constrained).
Numbers confirmed by the leaked company-wide email sent by Musk were lower and Electrek estimated “more than 10%” meant at least 14,000 employees would be laid off, as Tesla’s employee headcount is about 140,000 in total.
According to Electrek, the email said in part: “Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe. With this rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas. As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.
“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organisation and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally. 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.”
Electrek said there had also been reports some employees had already been locked out of system access.
Tesla recently reported a drop to quarterly deliveries.
Tesla stock price falls after lower Q1 deliveries
