A few weeks after reporting its first year-on-year decline in vehicle deliveries since 2020, Tesla now plans to lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, according to an internal company email seen by Electrek.
For those wondering how many people are affected, 10% of Tesla’s workforce, the number is likely to scare more than one person.
And that represents at least 14,000 out of the 140,473 employees that Tesla reported in its latest annual results. It is not clear which Tesla teams will be affected.
Elon Musk says that layoffs are good… for him
“There is nothing I hate more, but it has to be done,” said Elon Musk, in the email published by Electrek. “This will allow us to be lean, innovative, and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.”
Today’s news is the latest in a series of bad news for the electric vehicle manufacturer. The company failed to meet delivery estimates before presenting its quarterly results on April 23, and in January announced a slowdown in sales growth, which it attributed to manufacturing issues with its next generation of vehicles.
Apparently, Tesla has also abandoned its plans to produce an affordable Model 2 that would cost around $25,000 to focus on a new robotaxi. The company is facing increasing pressure from declining demand and more affordable electric vehicles manufactured in China.
Last year, Tesla lost the title of the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer to the Chinese company BYD, which produced 3.02 million electric vehicles compared to Tesla’s 1.81 million.
