Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet that the company is cutting its workforce by about 9%.
In an email to employees included with the tweet, Musk said the layoffs primarily will affect salaried employees and that production workers will be spared, "so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months."
The CEO said the move was part of "a comprehensive organizational restructuring" and that Tesla was "continuing to flatten our management structure to help us communicate better, eliminate bureaucracy and move faster."
He noted that the company has never been profitable during its 15 years of existence, but that it cannot achieve its goals unless it demonstrates that it can be. "That is a valid and fair criticism of Tesla's history to date," Musk wrote.
Musk also said that he still sees "a significant need for additional production personnel" and would continue to hire new staff as necessary. "I also want to emphasize that we are making this hard decision now so that we never have to do this again," he wrote.
