Business Desk 
Apr 16, 2024
Elon Musk’s Tesla is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce as the luxury automaker struggles with declining sales and rising costs of electric vehicles.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Tesla CEO Musk wrote: "About every five years, we need to reorganise and streamline the company for the next phase of growth.”
While Tesla layoffs have been making headlines since yesterday, investors and stakeholders received another shock when two senior leaders — battery development chief Drew Baglino and vice president for public policy Rohan Patel — announced their decision to leave the company.
Earlier in 2022, Musk announced a round of job cuts as he expected some major economic shifts about which he had a “super bad feeling”. Despite layoff, the number of Tesla employees — according to filing with US regulators — have rose to 140,000 in late 2023 from 100,000 in late 2021.
Following the development, Tesla shares closed 5.6% lower at $161.48 on Monday. Shares of EV makers Rivian Automotive, Lucid Group and VinFast Auto also dropped between 2.4% and 9.4%.
"As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity," Musk said in the memo sent to all staff.
"As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally," it said.
Reuters saw an email sent to at least three US employees notifying them their dismissal was effective immediately.
