Tesla fired two key executives and 500 employees who supported the operations of its Supercharger electric vehicle charging network, information announced Tuesday, citing CEO Elon Musk’s email to senior executives.
Musk cited falling sales and impatience with overall progress in job cuts as the main reasons for the cuts, and reportedly hinted that more cuts would come, warning his managers to take job-cutting measures seriously.
Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the electric vehicle maker’s Supercharger division, and Daniel Ho, head of the recent vehicle program, are out of work. The report shows that Musk also plans to lay off everyone working for Tinucci and Ho, including about 500 employees of the Supercharger group. The layoffs at Supercharger companies are particularly surprising because the Supercharger network is widely considered Tesla’s key competitive advantage — since January, Tesla has built 6,000 Supercharger stations with nearly 55,000 chargers.
Tesla’s public policy team, headed by former executive Rohan Patel, will also be disbanded.
According to Musk, Tesla must remain “absolutely tough” on managing its workforce and costs, and said the cuts should serve as a warning to any employee who does not take these initiatives seriously. According to Reuters, at the end of 2023, Tesla employed 140,473 employees worldwide.
Ho joined Tesla in 2013 and served as program manager for the Model S, 3 and Y before being responsible for all recent vehicles. Tinucci joined the company in 2018. Two other leaders — Patel and battery development chief Drew Baglino — announced their departures earlier this month, when Tesla also ordered the layoff of more than 10% of its workforce.
Includes reports from Reuters.
