DETROIT (AP) — After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday.
CEO Elon Musk detailed the plans in a memo sent to employees. The layoffs could affect about 14,000 of the 140,473 workers employed by the Austin, Texas, company at the end of last year.
Musk's memo said that as Tesla prepares for its next phase of growth, “it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity,” The New York Times and CNBC reported. News of the layoffs was first reported by electric vehicle website Electrek.
Also Monday, two key Tesla executives announced on the social media platform X that they are leaving the company. Andrew Baglino, senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, wrote that he had made the decision to leave after 18 years with the company.
Rohan Patel, senior global director of public policy and business development, also wrote on X that he was leaving Tesla, after eight years.
Baglino, who held several top engineering jobs at the company and was chief technology officer, wrote that the decision to leave was difficult. “I loved tackling nearly every problem we solved as a team and feel gratified to have contributed to the mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy,” he wrote.
He has no concrete plans beyond spending more time with family and his young children, but wrote that he has difficulty staying still for long.
Musk thanked Baglino in a reply. “Few have contributed as much as you,” he wrote.
Shares of Tesla fell 4.8% Monday afternoon, hours after news of the layoffs and departures broke. Shares of Tesla Inc. have lost about one-third of their value so far this year as sales of electric vehicles soften.
Tesla sales fell sharply last quarter as competition increased worldwide, electric vehicle sales growth slowed, and price cuts failed to draw more buyers. The company said it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, nearly 9% below the 423,000 it sold in the same quarter of last year.
Since last year, Tesla has cut prices as much as $20,000 on some models as it faced increasing competition and slowing demand. The price cuts caused used electric vehicle values to drop and clipped Tesla's profit margins.
The company has said it will reveal an autonomous robotaxi at an event in August.
FILE - Drivers charge their Teslas in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 20, 2024. After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday.(Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP, File)
FILE - An 2023 Model X sits outside a Tesla dealership on June 18, 2023, in Englewood, Colo. After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
FILE - Tesla CEO Elon Musk waves as he leaves the Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars after a visit in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, March 13, 2024. After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
FILE - People walk to the Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany,March 13, 2024. After reporting dismal first-quarter sales, Tesla is planning to lay off about a tenth of its workforce as it tries to cut costs, multiple media outlets reported Monday. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Emboldened by his party’s recent election win, South Korea’s opposition leader pressured President Yoon Suk Yeol to accept special investigations into allegations involving top officials and his wife, as they met Monday for talks on bipartisan cooperation.
The meeting was their first since Yoon took office in 2022 after defeating Lee in the country’s closest presidential election. During their 2022 campaigns, Yoon, Lee and their supporters demonized each other and filed dozens of lawsuits against one another.
Yoon proposed the meeting as he faces growing calls to cooperate with Lee’s Democratic Party, whose victory in the April 10 parliamentary election allows it to extend its control of the single-chamber National Assembly until after Yoon’s single five-year term ends in 2027.
In his lengthy opening remarks, Lee said the election results mean “the people’s stern demand for correcting wrong government administrations,” addressing economic troubles and restoring democratic rules.
Lee urged Yoon to accept independent probes into the 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 159 people, and the 2023 death of a marine who drowned during a search-and-rescue for flood victims. Lee’s party has accused Yoon of ignoring public demands and retaining top officials and military commanders responsible for the deadly incidents.
Lee also asked Yoon to resolve “diverse suspicions involving his family" that "poses a big burden on government operations.” That was apparently a reference to first lady Kim Keon Hee, who faces an allegation of involvement in a stock price manipulation and other scandals.
“I’d say it would be good for you, as president, to respect the National Assembly and consider the opposition party as a partner for government operations,” Lee said.
In a briefing after the meeting, senior presidential adviser Lee Do-woon said that Yoon told Lee Jae-myung that he won't oppose a special law to investigate the Halloween deaths but noted some legal concerns over an ad-hoc investigation committee. He didn't mention Yoon's responses to demands for other probes.
During the meeting, Lee also asked Yoon to accept his contentious idea of the government giving 250,000 won (about $180) to all South Koreans as a way to boost the economy, a step that Yoon’s party has called a populist measure. Lee Do-woon, the presidential adviser, said Yoon said that he prefers selectively supporting those in need.
In a separate briefing, Democratic Party spokesperson Park Sung-joon accused Yoon of lacking a resolve to revive public livelihoods. Park cited Lee Jae-myung as suggesting he was disappointed at the meeting's results.
No agreement was reached, but Yoon's office said the president and Lee Jae-myung agreed to meet frequently without setting a date for their next meeting.
In one positive news for bipartisan cooperation, Lee told Yoon that his party would support the government's high-stakes push to increase medical school students, which prompted thousands of young doctors to walk out of the job in February. The government recently suggested it's open to halving its target medical school enrollment quota to 1,000 from previously proposed 2,000, but doctors say they can't accept any increase in students.
Yoon has said South Korea needs to create more doctors as it has one of the world's most rapidly aging populations and its doctors-to-patient ratio is among the lowest in advanced economies. Doctors say schools can't deal with a too steep increase in students, but critics say they simply worry the supply of more doctors would eventually result in lowering their income.
The parliamentary election was seen a litmus test of Yoon, who has been struggling with low approval rating and an opposition-controlled parliament that has limited his policy agenda since his inauguration. Critics say the election defeat was largely attributable to the government's failure to suppress rising prices and other economic problems and Yoon's personal management and leadership styles.
Despite the election defeat, Yoon's major foreign policy agendas will likely remain unchanged as they mostly don't require parliamentary endorsements. Yoon has pushed hard to boost a trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan to cope with North Korea's evolving nuclear threats and other challenges.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, talks with main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung during a meeting at the presidential office in Seoul South Korea, Monday, April 29, 2024. (Hong Hae-in/Yonhap via AP)
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, shakes hands with main opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung during a meeting at the presidential office in Seoul South Korea, Monday, April 29, 2024. (Hong Hae-in/Yonhap via AP)
