- According to an email sent to Tesla employees on Monday, the company — one of the world's largest automakers — is laying off over 10% of its global workforce, reportedly due to falling sales. New York Times (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- In the memo, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is looking to achieve "cost reductions and increasing productivity" in preparation for the "next phase of growth." Reuters (LR: 3 CP: 5)
- Tesla's shares, which have fallen about 33% in 2024, closed 5.6% lower at $161.48 on Monday amid increased competition and decreased demand in the electric vehicle market. CBS (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- Though US electric vehicle sales were up 40% in 2023, Tesla's decline in sales is its first year-over-year drop since 2020. Due to low demand, Ford and General Motors have also scaled back their electric vehicle production. CNN (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- Tesla employs over 140K workers, meaning at least 14K people could lose their jobs by the end of the year. CBS (LR: 2 CP: 5)
- Drew Baglino, senior vice president of Tesla's powertrain and energy engineering team, and the company's head of public policy, Rohan Patel, announced their resignations following Musk's memo. CNBC (LR: 3 CP: 5)
Pro-establishment narrative:
- While layoffs are always unfortunate, they are not always avoidable. Cutting down the workforce is a necessary step to optimizing Tesla's growth and productivity. The company must focus on future innovation to remain competitive, and this cost-cutting measure is just one step towards doing that.
CBS (LR: 2 CP: 5)
Establishment-critical narrative:
- Tesla has made poor strategic decisions, and mistakenly thought that growth in the electric vehicle sector would continue the way it was forever. Instead of taking responsibility for his poor business acumen, Elon Musk is attributing the layoffs to plans for company growth.
WWW.INC.COM
Nerd narrative:
- There's a 10% chance that Tesla will become the largest car company in the world (by sales) before 2035, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)