Tesla is eliminating 3,332 jobs throughout the state of California, and 2,688 jobs in greater Austin, Texas according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act letters and notices filed in both states.
The layoffs are part of a broader restructuring that the electric vehicle maker announced last week.
In 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk moved the company’s corporate headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto, California.
Musk said in an internal memo last week that Tesla was cutting more than 10% of its global headcount as the electric vehicle maker reckons with flagging sales and increased competition. He did not say which departments or locations would be most affected.
“As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” he wrote. A subsequent WARN notice filed in New York indicated that 285 positions were being eliminated at a factory in Buffalo.
Tesla employed 140,473 people total as of December 2023, according to filings.
Tesla officially opened its Texas EV and battery factory in April 2022, with a “cyber rodeo” party. The company now manufactures some of its Model Y crossover utility vehicles in Austin, and has started to build its Cybertruck there.
Musk later called the Austin factory, and another assembly plant in Germany, “gigantic money furnaces,” in an interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a fan club that promotes Tesla vehicles.
According to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Tesla was planning to spend upward of $770 million last year on the construction of expanded facilities in Austin, including for battery cell testing and manufacturing, cathode and drive unit manufacturing, plus a die shop, among other things.
Tuesday’s WARN filings said, “none of the employees are represented by a union and none of the employees have bumping rights,” or the right of more senior workers to replace those with less seniority.
The layoffs in California included 2,266 people in Fremont, which is home to Tesla’s first U.S. vehicle assembly plant, and 486 employees in Palo Alto, home to Tesla’s engineering headquarters. The cuts impacted workers at the company’s factories, engineering offices, stores, showrooms and service centers throughout the state.
Jobs were also cut in Burbank and Lathrop, where Tesla makes spare parts at a foundry and assembles Megapack, battery energy storage systems.
Executives are expected to discuss the restructuring on the company’s quarterly earnings call at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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