Tesla lays off nine percent of its workforce

Tesla hasn't produced nearly as many of its vaunted Model 3 affordable EVs as it expected, which has led to a quarter of those who preordered the vehicle to demand refunds. As early as this year's first-quarter earnings call, Elon Musk told employees that a reorganization was coming -- and it came today. Musk published an internal email on Twitter revealing that the automaker is cutting around nine percent of jobs across the company.

In the email, Musk stated that Tesla's aggressive growth resulted in duplicated roles, and these layoffs will help the company reduce costs and become profitable. "These cuts were almost entirely made from our salaried population and no production associates were included, so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months," Musk wrote, forestalling concerns that the job cuts would affect the already-delayed EV from coming out. The company still expects its Model 3 gross margins to break even in Q2 and be positive in Q3 and Q4 of this year, Tesla told Engadget over email.

In the middle of the email, Musk also took the opportunity to announce that Tesla won't renew its sales agreement with Home Depot to retain sales of the company's solar power products within its online and retail stores.

In general, the layoffs come after sustained personnel growth for the company, which ended 2017 with roughly 37,000 employees around the world, the company told Engadget over email. Given its 15 percent increase in headcount year-on-year, even after today's job cuts, Tesla still has more employees than it did when the year started. Further, the company will continue to hire 'outstanding talent in critical roles' and that there's still a need for production personnel, Musk wrote in the internal email. Musk repeatedly thanked the departing employees and those who remained for "the difficult job that remains ahead." Just surviving in the automotive industry is a victory, he wrote.

Source: Bloomberg



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2LFK4z2
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs?
Read more