US electric carmaker Tesla has announced it will cut about 9 percent of its global workforce to enhance profitability. CEO Elon Musk insisted that Model 3 production would not be affected by the move.Chief Executive Elon Musk said Tuesday his company was cutting some 9 percent of jobs across the company.
Tesla’s latest annual filing last December showed it had 37,543 full-time employees.
He added the move was meant to help bring down costs without endangering the critical ramp-up of Tesla’s Model 3 sedan production.
Musk noted the cuts were part of a simplification scheme promised last month and affecting the carmaker’s management structure.
Not earning enough
“As part of the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 percent of our colleagues,” Musk said in an email to staff.
“These cuts were entirely from our salaried population and no production associates were included, so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months.”
Musk emphasized that Tesla “never made an annual profit,” but remained dedicated to clean energy. “But the company will never achieve this mission unless we can demonstrate that we can be sustainably profitable.”
The CEO announced the company was also cutting a sales agreement with US retailer Home Depot.
hg/jd (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
