Tesla News: Elon Musk Confirms Electric Car Company Will Lay Off 9 Percent Of Workforce

A difficult few months for electric car manufacturer Tesla was confirmed Tuesday, as the company announced it would slash 9 percent of its workforce as part of a “reorganization” that the eccentric, and often controversial, founder and CEO Elon Musk had hinted was coming earlier this year.

Musk tried to get out ahead of bad press and leaks by simply tweeting out the letter he sent to employees explaining the layoffs. Tesla, which employs around 46,000 workers, will therefore shed roughly 4,100 jobs, according to CNBC.

“Given that Tesla has never made an annual profit in the 15 years since we have existed, profit is obviously not what motivates us,” Musk wrote. “What drives us is our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable, clean energy, but we will never achieve that mission unless we eventually demonstrate that we can be sustainably profitable.”

Musk also used the internal missive as an opportunity to announce that Tesla’s solar energy sales program with Home Depot stores is ending.

Tesla has been the apple of the tech world’s eye for years due to its promise of affordable, mass-produced electric cars. However, the company struggled to produce its mass-market Model 3 car at an efficient level earlier this year. Musk blamed the problems on an overreliance on automation rather than human labor.

In May, he generated negative buzz for a combative conference call with press and analysts. Musk was also harshly criticized later in May for a tweet that labor union advocates argued threatened Tesla factory employees who wanted to unionize.

However, on Tuesday afternoon, Tesla shares rose by 6 percent. Analysts expect Model 3 production to hit promised levels by the end of the year.