Tesla cuts hundreds of jobs in California

Tesla is closing an office in Mateo, where employees primarily analyze data from the driver assistance system, according to Bloomberg, among others.

The company declined to comment further on the reports. According to Bloomberg, the majority are freelancers who are paid by the hour, 81 employees would move to Buffalo, New York. 

Tesla boss Elon Musk said at an economic conference in Qatar last week that ten percent of the company's full-time jobs would be cut in the next three months, while the number of temporary workers would increase. He complained to shareholders that the new plants in Austin, Texas and in Grünheide, Brandenburg would "burn money" and cause billions in losses. 

In a separate report, Musk described the two factories in Berlin and Austin currently as "gigantic money ovens". In Texas, only a tiny number of cars would roll off the assembly line at the moment. There are difficulties in ramping up production of the new 4680 batteries, and the tools for making the conventional 2170 batteries are stuck at a port in China. The factory in Grünheide is in a slightly better position because the traditional 2170 batteries were installed from the start.

"An absolute nightmare"

According to Musk, the past two years have been "an absolute nightmare" due to supply chain disruptions and constant new problems. The problems are far from solved. Most recently, the lockdown in Shanghai has not only paralyzed local car production, but also at the California plant, which uses some vehicle parts made in China, Musk said. The biggest concern for Tesla is how to keep the factories running so employees can be paid.

The electric car maker plans to suspend most of the production at the Shanghai site in the first two weeks of July due to modernisation work to increase production. This emerges from an internal memo obtained by the Reuters news agency.

Tesla had almost 100,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2021.