Just two weeks after Tesla laid off at least 14,000 workers across the world, CEO Elon Musk is planning layoffs for hundreds of additional staffers — including the bulk of the company’s Supercharger team and several executives.
Musk
wrote
in
an
email
sent
to
senior
Tesla
executives
late
Monday
night,
first
reported
by
The
Information,
that
he
wanted
to
be
“absolutely
hardcore”
about
reducing
Tesla’s
workforce.
He
added
that,
beginning
at
10
a.m.
on
Tuesday,
he
will
ask
any
executive
“who
retains
more
than
three
people
who
don’t
obviously
pass
the
excellent,
necessary
and
trustworthy
test”
to
resign.
He
also
announced
that
two
executives
would
depart
Tesla
on
Tuesday
morning:
Rebecca
Tinucci,
a
six-year
veteran
of
the
company
who
overseas
its
Supercharger
division,
and
Daniel
Ho,
who
has
been
at
Tesla
for
more
than
10
years
and
leads
its
new
products
division.
Ho
has
previously
been
the
program
manager
for
the
Model
S,
Model
3,
and
Model
Y.
Most of Tinucci’s 500-person team will also be leaving the company Tuesday, although a few will reportedly be reassigned to other teams, The Information reports. Tinucci has been instrumental in leading Tesla’s electric vehicle charging business and convincing Western automakers to adopt the North American Charging Standard — a feat that landed her on Time magazine’s 100 Climate list.
Tesla stock sank more than 2% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
The additional layoffs are unexpected but not entirely surprising. Tesla earlier this month said it would slash “more than 10%” of its 140,000-person strong global workforce. But Musk had reportedly pushed to lay off about 20% of the company, an amount that, he reasoned, would match Tesla’s sales decline between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
Ho
and
Tinucci
are
joining
at
least
three
other
high-profile
executives
who
have
either
already
resigned
or
plan
to
later
this
year.
Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, announced his resignation on April 15 as the layoffs began hitting workers’ inboxes. He was one of the original electrical engineers working on the Roadster, Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle, and was one of Tesla’s four named senior leaders. Shortly after resigning, Baglino sold sold about 1.1 million Tesla shares for about $181.5 million.
Rohan Patel, Tesla’s vice president of public policy and business development, has also left the company. Most of his public policy team has been eliminated.
And Martin Viecha, Tesla’s head of investor relations, closed the company’s first-quarter earnings call by announcing his resignation. But unlike Patel and Baglino, he will stay on in his role over the next few months to ensure a “smooth transition.”
Tesla’s head of cathode materials and manufacturing, Anthony Thurston, was impacted by the earlier layoffs. Amir Mirshahi, who led infrastructure at Tesla’s gigafactory in Texas, was also laid off.
This article originally appeared on Quartz.
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