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TESLA CEO ELON Musk has confirmed that 7% of the company’s employees are set to lose their jobs, saying there’s a “very difficult” road ahead.
The electric car and solar panel maker notified its employees about the staff cuts and other plans in a memo.
Musk said Tesla hopes to post a “tiny profit” in the current quarter, but that a 30% expansion in its workforce last year was more than it can support.
Tesla’s shares tumbled earlier this month after it cut vehicle prices by $2,000 (about €1,750) and announced fourth-quarter sales figures that fell short of Wall Street estimates.
“Our products are too expensive for most people,” Musk said in the memo to Tesla staff, saying the company has to “work harder”.
“Tesla has only been producing cars for about a decade and we’re up against massive, entrenched competitors,” he said.
Musk said in a tweet in October that Tesla, based on Palo Alto, California, had 45,000 employees. A 7% cut would involve laying off about 3,150 people.
“We unfortunately have no choice but to reduce full-time employee headcount by approximately 7 percent … and retain only the most critical temps and contractors,” he said in the memo.
It was recently announced that another of Musk’s companies, SpaceX, is laying off more than 6,000 employees “due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead“.
Model 3
The company said it delivered over 245,000 electric cars and SUVs last year, nearly as many as all previous years combined. But its 2018 production fell far short of a goal set nearly three years ago of manufacturing 500,000 vehicles for the year.
That goal was announced in May 2016 based on advance orders for its mid-range Model 3, which Musk said sells for $44,000 (about €38,500).
Musk said Tesla plans to ramp up production of the Model 3 “as we need to reach more customers who can afford our vehicles”.
Attempting to build affordable clean energy products at scale necessarily requires extreme effort and relentless creativity, but succeeding in our mission is essential to ensure that the future is good, so we must do everything we can to advance the cause.
Tesla broke ground earlier this month for a factory in Shanghai, its first outside the United States. Musk said it plans to begin production there of the Model 3 and a planned crossover by the year’s end.
Tesla and other global automakers including General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing electric vehicles in China.
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Could a rake of lads not push it on a bit?
@Insider at RTE: sexist
@Insider at RTE: I doubt it , if one of them pulled a muscle then they’d have a lawsuit on their hands!
Joke city..
@Tim McCormack29: yeah cause no bus or couches break down in any other city in the world
@Warren Mcdermott: You’re quick to have a go at Tim there mate!! Tell me this..when was the last time you actually saw ,’a couch’ broken down in any city in the world????
@The digenous: seen one in Sydney when I was living their also seen a broken down taxi in New York hold up traffic for ages, vehicles break down every day and some times takes time to move them doesn’t matter what city or town
@Warren Mcdermott: they are Coaches Warren. “Couches” as you posted don’t break down. You sit on them.
@The digenous: sorry about the spelling didn’t mean to upset u that much
@The digenous: He missed the sarcasm.
@Jay Harmon: indeed he did Jay:-)
@Warren Mcdermott: saw not seen
@The digenous: he gave your intelligence too much credit thinking you’d know he meant coaches.Warren, try understand some people struggle with sentences and words….and life.
@Tim McCormack29: amazing you cant a tow truck there to tow it of the luas at least
Should have built it underground. Our problems stem from the fact that politicians make decisions about infrastructure when they haven’t a clue
@Irish Spider-Man: That would make sense. It could still be done and no bus passengers would have to wait in the rain for a bus or tram ever again.
@Irish Spider-Man: Dublins problem is that culchie politicians who have no interest in Dublin being a premier city hold the purse strings. They’d rather upgrade a minor country road in their own constituency to ensure their re-election.
Things like this should be able to rectified in MINUTES !!!!! useless city management !
@Con Veron: Luckily it wasn’t clamped into the bargain.
@Con Veron: yeah let’s station tow trucks large enough to pull busses on every corner of the city. How do you propose tow trucks get through the traffic when needed?
@Craic_a_tower: Garda escort. It’s been done a few times before for when a Dublin bus broke down in a bad spot. They escorted a tow truck from one of their depots which are strategically placed aground the city centre. Perhaps have a tow truck available from Broadstone to cover the city centre area.
@Kárl: and that is going to take MINUTES? Nonsense! Unrealistic
@Craic_a_tower: well it might take fifteen minutes to get there, assuming that there is a structure on call system. Then about 10 minutes to attach a hitch/tow bar and pull vehicle of the tram line. These things to take time to do. You just can’t wave a magic wand for the problem to go away. Alternatively wait more than an hour for a tow car from a further destination.
What’s your alternative solution please?
@Kárl: Except this isn’t a Dublin Bus or CIE group vehicle. Why should CIE give access or help to a competitor ?
@Alan Dillon: It’s not to help a competitor. It’s to clear the blockage so as CIE services can operate with minimum delay. CIE have the infrastructure. They would not be doing it for free. They would receive a call or charge.
Just think, when the LUAS cannot operate, Dublin Bus accept their tickets. Not to help a competitor, but to get passengers moving, and LUAS pay Dublin bus for accepting these tights. It’s not a fee ride.
@Kárl: who says there needs to be a solution for every possible problem? Sheer expense prohibits solutions for occasional problems. The same reason we don’t have snow ploughs. You sound like Homer when he took over the binmen.
@Craic_a_tower: errrr…we do have snow plough.
All too common in Dublin lately. LUAS system badly designed with too few escape lines for such instances. Dublin City Council should also have a city centre based towing company on call to move large vehicles out of the way when they break down in awkward spots. Sometimes the rescue vehicle has to come from as far away as Lusk. This is unacceptable.
@Kárl: Its the city centre. The amount of space is at a premium and renting out a place big enough in the city centre area (if you can find it) is too costly for what is an occasional problem.
@Alan Dillon: It’s happening quite frequently now, as the city gets busier. You don’t need to rent out space. The facilities are there already. You task Dublin Bus who have depots in the city environs, with tow cars to react to this type of incident. They would only have to move the vehicle away from whatever is being obstructed, you a better position. Then, whoever the owner of the vehicle has engaged to come to their rescue can take over when they eventually arrive. The owner of the broken down vehicle would pay Dublin bus a small fee for the service.
Have been sitting on a luas tram for the last 50 minutes. At every single stop the driver has to wait for the next stop to clear. Around me 200 people are on their phones cancelling meetings or explaining to bosses why they are late. It is beyond ridiculous!
@Zmeevo Libe: would they not hop off at an available stop and get into a taxi?
@becca laste: If we were near the centre, we would. Unfortunately we were at Windy Arbour at the time i was writing this.
OK I know it’s not the same but there’s a video of passengers lifting a mini that was blocking the tracks of a tram in Nottingham. All you really need is one of those “stongmen” or “strongwomen” and a good rope to move a coach. A dozen or so passengers could probably push it out of the way.
This is why we don’t want a LUAS in Cork. Give us electric buses with dedicated lanes. Electric buses that aren’t on a fixed track can go around obstacles.
@John Ó’Ríordán: In da Big Smoke we had those electric trolley buses over 100 years ago. Glad to see you are no longer 200 years behind.
@Towger: funny how plenty of European cities still have them , trolleybuses that is. its dublin that’s behind
This is the third time if a few weeks now. A broken down bus on a particular area of tram track in the city brought the whole green line to a near standstill. It is wasn’t just the stops between St Stephen’s Green and from Dominick St, the trams were stopping at random stations for 20 minutes.
As far as I can make out, the bus was there for three hours.
If so, that is far too long.
Puncture ??
negative comment…….
I have to say but luas has been problematic since Day 1
It’s a bus ffs… Coach me hole
If the Loobus had retractable buffers then the coach coild be shifted double quick
have your say