Elon Musk's Tesla plans more job cuts as two senior executives leave
Rebecca Tinucci, Daniel Ho to leave automaker
Elon Musk is planning hundreds more job cuts across Tesla Inc. as two more senior executives leave the company, according to the Information.
Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of the Supercharger group, and Daniel Ho, head of new products, will no longer work at Tesla from Tuesday, according to the report, which cited an internal company memo. In the email, Musk said he would dismiss everyone working for the executives, with a few employees set to be reassigned, including roughly 500 people from Tinucci's group, the report said.
The fresh round of cuts comes just weeks after Tesla announced it would lay off more than 10% of its workforce and two top executives "- powertrain chief Drew Baglino and head of business development Rohan Patel "- publicly announced their resignations. The upheaval reflects broader ructions at the EV maker, which is facing unprecedented local competition in China and has seen a series of price reductions do little to revive slumping sales.
Tesla didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the report sent by Bloomberg News outside business hours.
Alongside the announcement of Tinucci's departure, Musk said Tesla would continue to build out some new Supercharger stations, where critical, and finish those under construction, according to the Information. The extensive charging network is viewed as core to the success of Tesla driving wider EV adoption, and the carmaker allows rival marques to use its chargers.
Musk also signalled the potential for even more job cuts, asking for the resignation of any executive who retains team members whose work isn't up to standard, according to the report. Bloomberg News has previously reported Musk has pushed for a 20 per cent reduction in Tesla's workforce.
Tesla's shares have been whipsawed over the past week as the company announced plans to speed up the release of cheaper models to counter a broad downturn in EV demand. The stock jumped 15% on Monday after the automaker received in-principle approval from government officials to deploy its driver-assistance system in China, though it's still down more than 20 per cent this year.