BREAKING: Tesla has removed all inventory discounts for all vehicle models in the U.S. (excluding demo cars).
This is the first time since 2022 that Tesla has had no inventory discounts in the U.S. for Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X. Some recent discounts had been as big as 10% off, so this is a big strategy change.
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
Tesla's global employee count expanded from 38,000 in early 2018 to over 140,000 in early 2024. Laying off ~10% of your workforce is not a small number, but Tesla's last major round of layoffs was a while ago. Many companies were doing large job cuts between late 2022 to late 2023, but Tesla didn't.
For a company of its size, periodic adjustments to the workforce are normal, particularly during challenging economic periods and or periods of growth.
Between 2016-2022, Tesla saw over 50 executive/high ranking departures. Some of them were the most tenured employees at the time. CFOs, heads of AI, VPs, a co-founder, etc, but in the end Tesla continued to grow and innovate. I'm not just trying to put a positive spin on this because I'm a $TSLA shareholder. While today's executive departures are definitely unfortunate and their talents will be missed, I still feel optimistic about the company's long-term prospects. However, I also acknowledge that the road ahead will probably be little bumpy (what else is new with Tesla lol).
It seems Elon wants to go all-in on AI/autonomy/robotics. To set Tesla up well for its next phase of growth, he might have felt some restructuring and reorganization was needed.
I'm seeing a lot of people on X panic, but Tesla still has a deep bench of talent/expertise.