Musk demands ‘hardcore’ job cuts and cost savings at ailing Tesla

ELON MUSK has called for “absolutely hardcore” job cuts at Tesla, as the company lays off hundreds more employees in an attempt to control costs.

The electric carmaker’s chief executive told managers that staff who are not “excellent, necessary and trustworthy” should be axed.

It comes a week after Tesla made around 14,000 staff redundant, roughly a tenth of the company’s workforce.

Tesla dismissed two key executives yesterday, as it also cut entire teams.

Rebecca Tinucci, the Supercharger network head, and Daniel Ho, the head of new products, are both leaving.

Ms Tinucci’s 500-strong Supercharger team and Tesla’s lobbying operation are also being dismissed.

“Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction,” Mr Musk wrote in an email to executives, claimed the technology news website The Information. “While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.”

He said that managers should cut staff who “don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test”. Last week, Tesla reported its biggest sales drop in 12 years and a slump in profits amid stalling demand for electric cars and growing competition from China. The company’s shares have soared recently as it promised to speed up the release of a new, cheaper vehicle and made progress towards releasing its full self-driving technology in China.

However, they have still fallen by more than 25pc this year.

It came as Volkswagen’s profits plunged by a fifth in the first three months of 2024 following a slowdown in sales of upmarket brands such as Porsche. The German car giant yesterday said profits for the first quarter fell 22pc to €3.7bn (£3.2bn), down from €4.7bn a year earlier.

However, Arno Antlitz, the car maker’s finance chief, insisted it was on course to hit its 2024 sales targets – adding that it planned to launch 30 models across its brands this year.

Rival manufacturer Stellantis, which owns brands including Vauxhall, Fiat and Peugeot, separately reported a 12pc drop in first-quarter sales yesterday.

During the quarter, VW said electric vehicle sales had also fallen 3.3pc.

But it argued this was only temporary, pointing to separate figures that showed EV orders had nearly doubled in the first three months of this year on 2023. VW has poured huge sums into the shift to electrification but is making slow progress due to tepid demand and fierce price competition from China.

‘Cut staff who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test’