International
Tesla managers have been asked whether each of their employees' positions were critical, stoking layoff fears in the company, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Sources familiar with the matter informed Bloomberg that Tesla initiated a brief inquiry for each job position after canceling biannual performance reviews for certain employees.
When contacted by Reuters for comment, the electric automaker did not respond immediately. As of December 31 last year, Tesla had a total of 140,473 employees worldwide.
In premarket trading, Tesla shares saw a 2.7% increase. However, they have experienced a decline of over 25% since the beginning of this year.
This development follows CEO Elon Musk's warning about a slowdown in sales growth for the year ahead, despite previous price reductions that have impacted margins at the company, which holds the title of the world's most valuable automaker. These price cuts have raised concerns among investors regarding soft demand and increased competition from Chinese rivals.
Despite Tesla's recent efforts to offer discounts, the sale of new energy vehicles in China, the largest auto market globally, experienced a decline in January, marking the first month-on-month drop.
Additionally, in the fourth quarter, the U.S. automaker was surpassed by China's BYD (002594.SZ) as the leading electric vehicle maker in terms of sales.
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