Tesla fires hundreds of staff

Electric car maker cites performance issues as the reason for the firings

A Tesla Model S in downtown Los Angeles. Tesla Motors fired hundreds of workers after its annual performance reviews. Richard Vogel/AP

The luxury electric vehicle maker Tesla fired about 400 employees this week, including associates, team leaders and supervisors, a former employee said.

The dismissals were a result of a company-wide annual review, Tesla said, without confirming the number of employees leaving the company.

“It’s about 400 people ranging from associates to team leaders to supervisors. We don’t know how high up it went,” said the former employee, who worked on the assembly line and did not want to be identified.

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Although Tesla cited performance as the reason for the firings, the source said he was fired in spite of never having been given a bad review.

The Palo Alto, California-based company said this month that “production bottlenecks” had left Tesla behind its planned ramp-up for the new Model 3 mass-market saloon.

The company delivered 220 Model 3 sedans and produced 260 during the third quarter. In July, it began production of the Model 3, which starts at US$35,000 - half the starting price of the Model S.