Tesla: Elon Musk describes wave of layoffs as “hardcore”

It has been clear for some time that there would be redundancies at Tesla. Now Elon Musk has caused even more anxiety among his workforce. In an email, the Tesla CEO announced that the personnel policy would be “absolutely hardcore”.

Elon Musk sends questionable e-mail

Tesla is currently in an economic slump. Falling sales figures due to strengthening competitors from the Far East are probably the main problem. As a result, the manufacturer is now having to make cuts. It was therefore not all that surprising when Tesla boss Elon Musk announced a major wave of redundancies in mid-April, with 10% of the workforce having to leave the company.

That would be just under 14,000 people. Now the car manufacturer has probably laid off the first of its employees. And under questionable circumstances. According to a report by Business Insider, this probably fits in with the controversial tech billionaire’s strategy. In an email sent by Musk at the beginning of the week, it is said that the personnel policy will be “absolutely hardcore”.

Various teams at Tesla affected

In the email, the Tesla boss then specified his planned wave of redundancies once again. It is not just the company as a whole that is to be cut. Rather, he has apparently specifically selected areas that have lost economic importance and are to be thinned out more. For example, the department for the company’s own charging infrastructure – the so-called Superchargers. It was not only the head of the department, Rebecca Tinucci, who was made redundant, as The Information reports.

On top of that, the entire team of almost 500 people had to go. However, these personnel decisions were apparently too hasty. As the news agency Bloomberg reports, Tesla wants to bring some of this team back into the company. This is due to the high demand for the charging network. After all, it is no longer just Tesla electric cars that can charge at the charging stations.

Third-party manufacturers can also use them. Tesla may now be operating this division with significantly less effort, but at least it won’t die. Some others from the Supercharger team will be deployed elsewhere. The department for the development of new products will probably fare similarly to the Supercharger division. However, it is still uncertain how many people are really affected in this area.

Wave of redundancies bigger than expected?

According to the email, the wave of redundancies is not just about “ordinary workers”. Rather, Tesla is also planning to thin out its management. In general, the planned wave of redundancies appears to be developing into a veritable tsunami. As Bloomberg reports, citing an insider, Musk is probably planning to fire 20 rather than “just” 10% of the workforce. Internally, there is already talk of over 20,000 redundancies.