More NIO Layoffs: Tesla Electric Vehicle Rival Lays Off 141 Employees

NIO (NIO), the Chinese electric vehicle maker that rivals Tesla, has laid off 141 employees from its U.S. headquarters, according to its WARN notice filed in California.

With its U.S. headquarters situated in San Jose, California, the automaker has announced layoffs three times in the last year as well as closing its San Francisco office back in May. The layoffs have primarily been targeted toward its R&D and engineering divisions, with 2,100 global employees laid off in September.

The new round of layoffs was made to NIO’s autonomous driving team after an announced partnership with Intel’s autonomous driving division, Mobileye, JoAnn Yamani, director of North American communications at NIO, told The Verge.

The layoffs were a result of “redundancy and duplications of effort associated with our path toward L4 [Level 4] autonomous driving,” Yamani said. She also indicated to the news outlet that prior to the deal with Intel, NIO was working on its own autonomous technology, which is still ongoing.

Yamani also said the layoffs were an opportunity by NIO to cut costs globally as the company reportedly saw lower than expected sales for its ES8 SUV in 2019.

The SUV began selling in China last year and reached only 3,000 units per month at the end of 2018, which was further complicated by a battery recall, which led to nearly $900 million loss in the first half of 2019, according to the news outlet.

Earlier this year, NIO employed 640 workers in the U.S., according to its SEC filing. The automaker has reportedly seen more than $5 billion in losses since it began in 2015.

Shares of NIO stock were uo 0.4405% as of 12:01 p.m. EST on Wednesday.