Elon Musk Says He's Going “Absolutely Hardcore” on Tesla Staffing

Tesla laid off approximately 10% of its workforce – around 14,000 employees – earlier this month but according to new reports, the job cuts are far from over.

Elon Musk has reportedly sent out another email to Tesla staffers in which he warned of another massive wave of layoffs. In the email, Musk wrote that he is going “absolutely hardcore” on Tesla’s staffing, according to The Information. Sources told Bloomberg last week that Musk was planning to lay off 20% of the company – about 20,000 employees – in order to match the sales decline between the final quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2024.

In the latest email to Tesla staff, Musk also said that he expects any executive “who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” to resign by 10 a.m. on Tuesday, The Information reported. The memo implies that he wants executives to make cuts to their teams, or risk being let go themselves.

As the new round of job cuts commences, Tesla has already laid the entire 500-person team behind its Supercharger, along with its 40-person ad content team. Head of policy and business development Rohan Patel is out, as is Drew Baglino, the former VP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering who had worked at Tesla for 18 years.

Tesla sales have been plummeting with the first three months of 2024 indicating a $17.38 billion USD decline year-to-year.