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Tesla Plans To Lay-Off 10% of Its Global Workforce

Tesla Plans To Lay-Off 10% of Its Global Workforce

This may be the beginning of the end of the road for EV-mania.

Last summer, I noted that electrical vehicle EV) sales were running out of fuel.

…[T]he CEO of Toyota has reported most of his colleagues do not think EV-only transportation is sensible, practical, or realistic. EV drivers are experiencing “range anxiety,” and short trips have doubled or more in time due to charging times. Blackouts, especially during the summer heat waves, make reliance on EVs impractical.

Americans seem to be less trusting of “The Science” and are now climate-crisis-questioning. This may, in part, explain why there are now reports of a slowdown in EV sales.

Tesla, the most iconic of EV manufacturers, seemed to be avoiding this skid. Unfortunately, the realities of being a niche market with every increasing costs associated with production have caught up with the firm headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

Tesla ill lay off more than 10% of its global workforce, according to a memo sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk.

The company’s shares closed down more than 5% on Monday.

“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” Musk said in the memo obtained by CNBC.

“As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally,” the memo said.

Furthermore, EV sales continue to decline and other car companies are beginning to make alternative production plans as a result.

Nearly 269,000 electric vehicles were sold in the United States in the first three months of this year, according to Kelley Blue Book. That was a 2.6 percent increase from the same period last year, but a 7.3 decrease from the final quarter of 2023. And amid the quarter-to-quarter slowdown in the industry, Tesla’s market share has fallen from 62 percent at the start of 2023 to 51 percent now.

…Ford’s E.V. market share jumped to 7.4 percent from 4.2 percent in the past year, making it the second-largest electric vehicle brand in the United States. Ford, however, announced this month that it was slowing down its E.V. production plans in response to slowing demand.

There were hints earlier this month Tesla was having problems. And it appears plans to build a less expensive EV have been scuttled.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Tesla’s quarterly deliveries declined for the first time in nearly four years and fell short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates. Tesla announced at the time that it delivered roughly 387,000 vehicles in the first quarter – well below expectations of about 443,000 and an 8.5% decrease compared to the first quarter of last year.

…Reuters also reported earlier this month that Tesla was abandoning its long-touted plans to produce a budget-friendly starter car, purportedly called Model 2, that was expected to start at $25,000.

Until there is a charging infrastructure network that can accommodate the entire American public, an electric grid that can handle capacity, enough natural resources to build models at a moderate price, and technology that doesn’t ignite when it gets wet or won’t start when it gets too cold, this may be the beginning of the end of the road for EV-mania.

Well, except for in the minds of lunatic eco-activists who are pushing their insane “Net Zero 2050” agenda. If we could power cars with their hot air and smugness, then we would be able to run our vehicles forever.

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Comments

The Gentle Grizzly | April 16, 2024 at 8:04 am

Wait until the tax credits stop. It will be more than ten percent.

Another thought: will this finally be the death knell for the Fremont California car plant?

Tesla is not a bad vehicle, but it is expensive and impractical for a lot of people. Other EVs are way worse. Virtue signaling by government will not change that.

    Olinser in reply to EBL. | April 16, 2024 at 12:45 pm

    And yet its still miles ahead of any other competitor.

    Which should tell you everything you need to know about the insane mandates idiot leftists like California are passing trying to demand LUNATIC crap like 60% of vehicles be electric by 2030.

    All of the manufacturers are CUTTING production because they can’t sell what they’ve already made.

Tesla
Just built a HIGE plant in Austin, I mean HUGE.

chrisboltssr | April 16, 2024 at 9:49 am

EVs have always been inferior to gas engines. EVs only exist because government keep interfering in the market. The people who want an EV got one, but even they wouldn’t have bought the car if they weren’t bribed with tax credits.

ObeliskToucher | April 16, 2024 at 9:50 am

Nothing especially new…

Quick history of Tesla layoffs:

• 2017: 2% of headcount
• 2018: 9% of headcount
• 2019: 7% of headcount
• 2022: 10% of salaried workers (3% of global headcount)
• 2024: ~10% of headcount

E Howard Hunt | April 16, 2024 at 10:25 am

Maybe the cars can be reworked as golf carts.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to E Howard Hunt. | April 16, 2024 at 2:33 pm

    A lot of people are converting their golf carts to lithium batteries, some even cover the roof with solar panels. That does make sense.

Just a side note and perspective about Ford being #2 in U.S. EV sales….

“Ford U.S. EV Sales Almost Doubled In Q1 2024 To Over 20,000”

https://insideevs.com/news/714823/ford-us-ev-sales-2024-q1/

Meanwhile

“With Ford’s first sales of the new F-150 in March, F-Series begins the year as America’s best-selling truck with 152,943 sales.”

    Ironclaw in reply to Hodge. | April 16, 2024 at 2:27 pm

    Yet they lose over $30,000 on each one they sell. If they didn’t sell real cars and trucks, they’d not have a business to run. Hell of a business plan to lose money on each sale then make it up in volume…

EV are and will remain a luxury choice for upper middle-class and higher economic strata drivers, predominantly in urban areas where commute distance is negligible. For that market an EV can make sense. In addition an EV as the second car of a household may also make sense with similar constraints on mileage demands. Outside those confines? Not so much. Until the battery issues are resolved and the power supply constraints are resolved with a power generation build out to meet the additional electricity demand for EV and most importantly the installation of a network of charging stations to reduce ‘fill up’ time to something approaching the time required for an ICE vehicle then EV will continue in a niche role. Then there’s the coming deluge of used EV and the problem of how does a consumer dispose of the battery? Seems vastly unfair to shift the cost burden off of the EV market and onto general public to resolve any of these issues.

    healthguyfsu in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 12:54 pm

    Agreed. EV really shines in a congested area with a lot of stop and go traffic and lots of power infrastructure…essentially an urban/metropolitan environment.

      Ironclaw in reply to healthguyfsu. | April 16, 2024 at 7:45 pm

      Except in those same Urban environments you have a large percent of the population that cannot park off the street and therefore cannot charge at home.

      BierceAmbrose in reply to healthguyfsu. | April 17, 2024 at 12:00 am

      … plus, those areas are more subject to concentration effects from emitted pollution.

      Even at peak auto emissions, there was never photo-chemical smog out in anybody’s rural hills. Gotta get the crud density high enough for the chemistry to happen. And health impact is threshold-y, but we don’t talk about that.

    healthguyfsu in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 12:55 pm

    ” Seems vastly unfair to shift the cost burden off of the EV market and onto general public to resolve any of these issues.”

    This is what urbanites consistently do to peace and quiet loving rural citizens throughout history.

    gibbie in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 2:29 pm

    “Seems vastly unfair to shift the cost burden off of the EV market and onto general public to resolve any of these issues.”

    This is already the case due to subsidies.

    gibbie in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 2:29 pm

    Excellent summary!

    Ironclaw in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 2:29 pm

    They can’t make an EV fill up as fast as a fuel tank. You can only push so many electrons across a wire before that wire melts and we’re already approaching that limit.

      CommoChief in reply to Ironclaw. | April 16, 2024 at 3:47 pm

      Not so much the time ‘at the pump/charger’ as much as a build out of fast chargers to make them as ubiquitous as gas stations. That’s on the EV market consumer/advocates to figure out with private $. Unfortunately too many want to suckle the govt teat.

        Ironclaw in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 7:46 pm

        There’s a reason no one voluntarily builds those Chargers without government subsidies. They don’t see a chance to make a profit.

    JohnSmith100 in reply to CommoChief. | April 16, 2024 at 2:45 pm

    I have 25KW of bifacial solar panes and about 60KAH of battery storage. If EVs tank and they become dirt cheap, then I would consider buying one. When it was not being driven it would become an extension for my battery bank.

The market has become a flatline. All the people that could afford them, wanted to virtue signal by driving them or use them in a niche market have bought one. The vast majority of people look at them as totally impractical so don’t want one and that will not change no matter the infrastructure.

Yeah, hell of a business those EV’s. Imagine doing so well that you have to start getting rid of the people who build the things.

    henrybowman in reply to Ironclaw. | April 16, 2024 at 8:00 pm

    Seems like a non sequitur. Ford, McDonald’s, Tysons… they’ve all automated away a heck of a lot of people who used to make their things.

Tesla’s R & D staff should be working on its new gas engine!