Elon Musk to cut 9% of workforce in Tesla push for profit

Company chief says thousands of jobs must
go in ‘difficult but necessary’ restructuring

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Musk admitted that Tesla “has never made a profit in
almost 15 years”. Tesla is driven by finding solutions to “clean”
energy, rather than profits, he continued, but the firm will “never
achieve that mission unless we eventually demonstrate that we can
be sustainably profitable”.

According to The Guardian, the more than 3,500 jobs cut will
be centred on “salaried” roles, rather than factory work. 

The restructuring should not affect production of the
company’s Model 3 budget EV, which has been plagued by
manufacturing woes since launching in last July, the newspaper
reports.

Michelle Krebs, an analyst at online vehicle trading platform
Autotrader, told the BBC that the job cuts did not come as a surprise to
many in the industry.

“It is clear that Tesla is under tremendous pressure to
finally turn a profit and is attempting to address it by cutting
overhead,” she said. “Also notable is [that] Tesla is not cutting
production jobs at a time when pushing Model 3s out the door is a
top priority.”

Although Tesla has yet to reach profitability, it hasn’t stopped
the electric car from pushing ahead with a host of new models,
Autocar notes.

These new cars include a performance variant of the Model
3, a Bugatti Chiron-rivalling Roadster sports car and a compact SUV
dubbed the Model Y.