Tesla apparently plans to lay off 14,000 employees

Tesla was once considered the undisputed king of electromobility. However, competition from the Far East and the ailing e-car market have been making things difficult for the US manufacturer for months. Now the company seems to be having to draw its first conclusions. A large wave of redundancies is looming.

Wave of redundancies at Tesla on the way

This is unlikely to be a rosy Monday for the Tesla workforce. After all, there was bad news today in the form of an email. CEO Elon Musk himself has apparently announced that ten percent of the workforce worldwide will probably have to be laid off. In view of a global workforce of over 140,000, at least 14,000 people are likely to lose their jobs.

The reason for the huge wave of redundancies is the company’s poor sales figures. The e-car manufacturer’s alleged plans were made public on Saturday in a report by Business Insider. The news portal cites the blog Electrek, which is familiar with insider information from the field of electromobility.

Members of the blog apparently have the email in question. The email reveals that Musk wants to reduce costs in order to maintain Tesla’s competitiveness. Musk continues to express the vision of making Tesla “lean, innovative and hungry” in the wake of the gigantic wave of redundancies.

Elon Musk is spoiled for success

Naturally, Tesla is looking internally for the reasons why sales figures are plummeting. But they won’t have to look for too long, as the solution is obvious. The current trend is that e-cars are becoming less popular. After all, it is by no means the case that car sales figures are falling in general. On the contrary, vehicles with combustion engines are currently experiencing a real upswing again.

Furthermore, business in China, which has been so successful up to now, has really slumped. The reason for this is that more and more Chinese people are now opting for national brands such as BYD when buying an electric car. And this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. After all, Xiaomi is entering the electric car market this year with its SU7. The vehicle is in the same price bracket as the Tesla Model 3, but beats it hands down when it comes to technical features.

However, things are not quite so precarious for the company. This becomes clear when you make a direct comparison with other car manufacturers listed on the stock market. Toyota, for example, has a market capitalization of 375 billion euros. By comparison, Tesla still has a value of a whopping 512 billion euros. Perhaps Elon Musk simply needs to get used to the fact that a company’s steep rise will eventually come to an end and it will have reached the top of the mountain.