Elon’s Bloodbath Continues: Tesla Cuts 600+ More Jobs in California

Elon Musk’s Tesla  is continuing to lay off employees as the company has slashed an additional 600 jobs across its California facilities, affecting a wide range of positions from factory workers to engineers.

CNBC reports that Tesla has been grappling with a series of challenges that have led to multiple rounds of layoffs over the past month. The latest round of layoffs, reported in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act filing obtained by CNBC, impacted a wide range of positions, from entry-level roles to directors, spanning various departments such as factory workers, software developers, and robotics engineers. This move comes as Tesla faces weakening demand for its electric vehicles and increased competition in the market.

CEO Elon Musk had previously announced in an April memo that the company would cut more than 10 percent of its global workforce, which stood at 140,473 employees at the end of 2023. Prior filings revealed that Tesla would cut over 6,300 jobs across California, Austin, Texas, and Buffalo, New York.

During Tesla’s quarterly earnings call on April 23, Musk suggested that the company had built up a 25 percent to 30 percent “inefficiency” over the past several years, implying that the ongoing layoffs could impact tens of thousands more employees than initially stated.

The job cuts in Fremont, home to Tesla’s first U.S. manufacturing plant, included 378 positions involved in staffing and running vehicle assembly, as well as 65 cuts at the company’s Kato Rd. battery development center. Among the highest-level roles eliminated were two environmental health and safety directors and a user experience design director. In Palo Alto, Tesla’s engineering headquarters, 233 more employees lost their jobs, including two directors of technical programs.

According to two former employees, Tesla has also terminated a majority of employees involved in designing and improving apps made for customers and employees. The WARN filing confirms this, with many cuts coming from the team at Tesla’s Hanover Street location in Palo Alto.

Tesla’s decision to reduce its workforce comes amidst a backdrop of reduced demand for its older Model S and X vehicles, as well as the Model 3 sedan. The company reported its steepest year-over-year revenue decline since 2012 in the first quarter, with total deliveries dropping compared to the previous year.

Increased competition, particularly in China, has continued to pressure Tesla’s sales in the second quarter, with companies like Xiaomi and Nio launching new EV models that undercut the price of Tesla’s most popular vehicles.

Read more at CNBC here.