Automotive News Europe — 2024-04-23
Automotive Industry
Tesla is hoping to achieve the jobs reduction without forced layoffs.
Tesla is targeting around 400 job cuts at its German factory, or about 3% of the plant's workforce
That is less severe than groupwide efforts to slash more than 10% of Tesla's 140,000-plus global employees, a response to an intensifying price war for electric vehicles that is pressuring automakers to reduce costs.
"The currently weakening sales market for electric cars is also presenting Tesla with challenges," the company said on Tuesday, 22 April 2024.
Tesla said talks were being held with the plant's works council and it was hoping to achieve the jobs reduction without forced layoffs.
Tesla builds the Model Y at the factory in Gruenheide, near Berlin, its only plant in Europe.
More than 12,000 people are employed at the factory, and Tesla during the second week of April 2024 said it would shed about 300 temporary workers as its global job reduction program unfolds.
"It is always in our interest to operate our production as efficient as possible," Tesla said.
"I regret the announced job cuts at Tesla in Gruenheide very much. However, I am pleased that this will be implemented with a sense of proportion," said Joerg Steinbach, economy minister of the German state of Brandenburg, where the factory is based.
He said the cuts were "comparatively moderate."