Tesla Cutting About 9% of Workers on Musk's Profitability Push
Tesla Inc. has followed through on a restructuring announced last month by cutting about 9% of its workforce, as CEO Elon Musk seeks a first annual profit for the electric-car maker.
Almost all of the employees being let go are salaried workers and no production associates are included, Musk wrote in an internal memo on June 12. He said Tesla’s rapid growth in recent years contributed to “duplication of roles” and the creation of jobs that the company could no longer justify.
“Given that Tesla has never made an annual profit in the almost 15 years since we have existed, profit is obviously not what motivates us,” Musk wrote.
“What drives us is our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable, clean energy, but we will never achieve that mission unless we eventually demonstrate that we can be sustainably profitable. That is a valid and fair criticism of Tesla’s history to date.”
By Dana Hull
