According to a recent filing, Tesla is shutting down an office in San Mateo, California, that housed one of the teams working on the company’s drive assistance tech, Autopilot — reports Reuters.
The news comes a little over a month after Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent out an internal email to management saying the company had become “overstaffed” and would need to lay off about 10% of its employees. Granted, that only applies to salaried staff. Tesla actually plans on hiring more hourly workers for its factories and assembly lines.
In the same email, Musk also told managers he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy. Tesla recently reported a delivery count of 254,695 vehicles for the second quarter. The company is set to announce detailed financial results for Q2 next week on Wednesday, July 20.
Reuters added that Tesla rival and electric truck maker Rivian Automotive is also planning layoffs. Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said in an internal email on Monday that the company will brief employees on potential job cuts this Friday. He also said that the company is restructuring and will therefore suspend some programs.
“Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably,” Scaringe said in his email. He added that while the company is “financially well positioned,” it has started “prioritizing certain programs (and) stopping some.”
Musk said last month that Rivian and fellow electric automaker Lucid might be looking at bankruptcy if they don’t cut costs. In his email, Scaringe said the company is “adopting major cost-down efforts” to rein in spending.
Rivian produced 4,401 electric vehicles in Q2, saying last week that it is on track for 25,000 in total by year’s end. The company is also flush with cash right now as it reported $16 billion USD in hand at the end of the first quarter.
As for layoffs, the Rivian CEO said the company will “assess the size and structure of our teams,” but it plans to be “as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions” in staff.
