Musk reaffirmed the company’s need for meaningful layoffs and cost-cutting in an email late Monday night, according to a report from The Information.
In the email, Musk announced the departure of two executives at the company: Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the company’s Supercharger group, and Daniel Ho, head of new products, according to the report.
All staff reporting to the executives would also be cut, although a small number of workers would be reassigned, the report said. The dissolving of the Supercharger group led by Tinucci would result in around 500 layoffs, the report said. Musk also said in the email he would be getting rid of the public policy team whose director left the company on April 15, according to The Information.
“Hopefully these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hard core about headcount and cost reduction,” Musk wrote, according to the email viewed by The Information. “While some on execstaff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.”
Musk also said starting at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, he would ask for the resignation of any executive “who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test,” according to the report.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.
This isn’t the first time Musk has sent a threatening late-night email to his employees or talked about the importance of a “hardcore” culture. Musk previously made a similar move after taking over Twitter, telling employees to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work schedule — or get laid off with three months of severance.
The latest cuts at Tesla arrive weeks after Musk announced Tesla layoffs that would impact more than 10% of its workforce. The automaker began notifying impacted staff on April 14 in another past-midnight email, and more cuts followed later that week. Tesla’s job cuts come as Tesla struggles to deal with slower demand for EVs.
Within a few hours of the announcement notifying employees about layoffs, workers received notice of layoffs through emails, though some found out they were impacted when they showed up to work and were escorted away after their badge scans failed.
Tesla reported an 8.7% year-over-year revenue drop for the first quarter in its company earnings last week, though its gross margin beat expectations. Its earnings per share missed consensus forecasts, however, and its free cash flow was negative $2.5 billion in the quarter — a 674% year-over-year drop — amid a $1 billion spend on AI infrastructure investments.
