According to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act letters and notices filed in California and Texas, Tesla is reducing its workforce by 3,332 jobs across California and 2,688 jobs in Austin, Texas.
These layoffs are part of a larger restructuring initiative announced by the electric vehicle manufacturer last week. In 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk relocated the company's corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas.
In an internal memo last week, Musk stated that Tesla would be reducing more than 10% of its global workforce as the company faces challenges such as declining sales and heightened competition. However, he did not specify which departments or locations would be most affected.
Tesla's total global headcount as of December 2023 was 140,473 employees, according to filings.
The company's Texas EV and battery factory officially opened in April 2022 with a celebratory "cyber rodeo" party. This factory now produces some of Tesla's Model Y crossover utility vehicles and has begun manufacturing the Cybertruck.
Musk referred to the Austin factory, along with another assembly plant in Germany, as "gigantic money furnaces" in an interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, a fan club promoting Tesla vehicles.
According to filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Tesla planned to invest over $770 million in the construction of expanded facilities in Austin last year, including facilities for battery cell testing and manufacturing, cathode and drive unit manufacturing, as well as a die shop, among other things.
In California, the layoffs included 2,266 people in Fremont, home to Tesla's first U.S. vehicle assembly plant, and 486 employees in Palo Alto, where the company's engineering headquarters are located.
The job cuts impacted workers across Tesla's factories, engineering offices, stores, showrooms, and service centers in the state.
Additionally, jobs were cut in Burbank and Lathrop, where Tesla operates a foundry for spare parts and assembles Megapack battery energy storage systems.
