Just two weeks after Tesla laid off at least 14,000 workers across the world, CEO Elon Musk is planning layoffs for hundreds of additional staffers — including the bulk of the company’s Supercharger team and several executives.
Musk wrote in an email sent to senior Tesla executives late Monday night, first reported by The Information, that he wanted to be “absolutely hardcore” about reducing Tesla’s workforce. He added that, beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, he will ask any executive “who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” to resign.
He also announced that two executives would depart Tesla on Tuesday morning: Rebecca Tinucci, a six-year veteran of the company who overseas its Supercharger division, and Daniel Ho, who has been at Tesla for more than 10 years and leads its new products division. Ho has previously been the program manager for the Model S, Model 3, and Model Y.
Most of Tinucci’s 500-person team will also be leaving the company Tuesday, although a few will reportedly be reassigned to other teams, The Information reports. Tinucci has been instrumental in leading Tesla’s electric vehicle charging business and convincing Western automakers to adopt the North American Charging Standard — a feat that landed her on Time magazine’s 100 Climate list.
Tesla stock sank more than 2% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
The additional layoffs are unexpected but not entirely surprising. Tesla earlier this month said it would slash “more than 10%” of its 140,000-person strong global workforce. But Musk had reportedly pushed to lay off about 20% of the company, an amount that, he reasoned, would match Tesla’s sales decline between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024.
Ho and Tinucci are joining at least three other high-profile executives who have either already resigned or plan to later this year.
Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president for energy engineering and powertrain, announced his resignation on April 15 as the layoffs began hitting workers’ inboxes. He was one of the original electrical engineers working on the Roadster, Tesla’s first-ever electric vehicle, and was one of Tesla’s four named senior leaders. Shortly after resigning, Baglino sold sold about 1.1 million Tesla shares for about $181.5 million.
Rohan Patel, Tesla’s vice president of public policy and business development, has also left the company. Most of his public policy team has been eliminated.
And Martin Viecha, Tesla’s head of investor relations, closed the company’s first-quarter earnings call by announcing his resignation. But unlike Patel and Baglino, he will stay on in his role over the next few months to ensure a “smooth transition.”
Tesla’s head of cathode materials and manufacturing, Anthony Thurston, was impacted by the earlier layoffs. Amir Mirshahi, who led infrastructure at Tesla’s gigafactory in Texas, was also laid off.