FILE – The logo for the Tesla Supercharger station is seen in Buford, Ga, April 22, 2021. Faced with falling global sales and a tumbling stock price, Tesla has slashed prices again on some of its electric vehicles and its “Full Self Driving” system. Tesla releases first-quarter earnings Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Tesla Inc. workers are living in fear of the “Dear Employee” layoff email.
Tesla’s workforce already has endured dramatic transformation the last few years — the onetime Silicon Valley upstart with a maniacal vision on clean energy is now concentrated in Texas and fixated on other undertakings, including artificial intelligence and robots. The waves of dismissals, which already have hit thousands across departments including sales, human resources and virtually the entire Supercharger division, are expected to gut significant parts of Tesla, which started the year with more than 140,000 employees. Musk has pushed for a 20% reduction in headcount, Bloomberg reported last month.
The gallows humor pervaded the Supercharging team, which had set up more than 6,200 stations and 57,000 connectors worldwide and was in the process of opening the network to other automakers, which should increase usage. The region now has just one employee in an over 200-mile stretch between Santa Rosa and Eureka, said the person, who was cut two weeks after the initial layoff announcement.