Electric car maker Tesla cuts nine percent of workforce

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Detroit, US | June 12

Electric car maker Tesla Inc. is laying off about 3,600 workers mainly from its salaried ranks as it slashes costs in an effort to deliver on CEO Elon Musk’s promise to turn a profit in the second half of the year.

In an email to workers on Tuesday, Musk said the cuts amount to about 9 percent of the company’s workforce of 40,000.

Tesla would not say how much money the layoffs would save, but said no factory workers would be affected as the company continues to ramp up production of its lower-priced Model 3 compact car.

“Tesla has grown and evolved rapidly over the past several years, which has resulted in some duplication of roles and some job functions that, while they made sense in the past, are difficult to justify today,” Musk wrote in the email. He thanked departing employees for their hard work and said Tesla is providing “significant salary and stock vesting” to those being let go, based on their length of service.

Tesla has not made an annual profit in its 15 years of doing business, and it has posted only two quarterly net profits.