Elon Musk cuts two Tesla departments and lays off at least 500 employees

“We must be absolutely uncompromising about staffing and cost reduction.” Billionaire Elon Musk has closed two departments of the car manufacturer Tesla, dismissing their two managers with immediate effect and announcing the dismissal of their employees, i.e. at least 500 people, according to an internal email sent Monday and which the media The Information says it has consulted this Tuesday April 30.

According to this media, the billionaire announces the departure on Tuesday morning of Rebecca Tinucci, director of the Supercharger group, and Daniel Ho, responsible for new products after having participated in the development of most Tesla cars, as well as the dissolution of their services. He specifies that almost all of the people working there, with a few exceptions, will be fired. For the Supercharger group, this represents around 500 people, specifies The Information.

Elon Musk also announces the elimination of the public policy team, which reported to Rohan Patel until his departure on April 15. According to this same source, Drew Baglino - a vice president in charge of motorization - also left on this date. It was also on that day that he announced internally, according to American media, the elimination of “more than 10%” of the global workforce.

According to its latest annual report, Tesla employed around 140,000 people at the end of December, which means that it planned to let go of at least 14,000 employees. It was unclear Tuesday whether the reduction mentioned in Monday's email was part of the April 15 announcement. Asked by AFP, Tesla did not react immediately.

The manufacturer recently made agreements with competitors so that their electric vehicles can use Tesla's (more powerful) Supercharger network, which is much more developed than theirs. “We will continue to establish new Supercharger sites, where essential, and complete those currently under construction,” he said in his email, according to The Information.

This news comes after Elon Musk returned from a surprise trip to China on Sunday where he obtained a decisive green light, a prerequisite for the development in the country of its “fully autonomous driving” (“FSD” in English) functionality.

The group announced on April 23 a 55% drop in its net profit in the first quarter, in a context of increased competition and a lackluster market. But, above all, he plans to produce a low-cost vehicle “as quickly as possible”.