Tesla factory in Berlin photo from a drone/Tesla
Electric car manufacturer Tesla will lay off 14,000 workers, which is 10% of its workforce worldwide.
In a document sent to the company's employees by CEO Elon Musk and revealed on the Elektrek website, Musk explains that "Over the years we have grown rapidly with several factories that have expanded around the world. With this rapid growth came a duplication of roles and responsibilities in certain areas."
In the first quarter of this year, Tesla sold 433,000 cars, a 10% decrease compared to the previous quarter, but was left with an inventory of about 50,000 cars, after selling only 387,000, a very unusual matter. For a company that advocates pre-order production,
despite the decline in sales, Tesla managed to overtake the Chinese BYD, which produced only 300,000 electric cars at the time, and became the largest electric car manufacturer in the world.
Elon Musk/Reuters
But it will no longer console the fired. "As we prepare the company for the next phase of our growth, it is very important to look at every aspect of the company to reduce costs and increase productivity," added Musk, whose personal fortune is estimated at $200 billion. "As part of this effort, we conducted an in-depth review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it has to be done. This will allow us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle ".
Tesla attributed the first drop in deliveries in four years to production problems that were caused, among other things, by the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and made it difficult to transfer components to the Berlin plant, which itself suffered a production stoppage due to sabotage by environmental organizations.
But the company's growing problem is a limited and relatively expensive model range. BYD, for example, already markets in Europe three cheaper models than the Model 3, and will add two more next year. Musk promised to launch only one of these, and only at the end of 2025, having previously failed to meet similar deadlines.