Tesla fires hundreds of workers after performance reviews
14 Oct 2017
Tesla this week fired hundreds of workers following a series of performance reviews conducted during the biggest expansion in the company's history.
Tesla said yesterday that the dismissals were not out of the ordinary, even though they came as the automaker looks to up production of its first mass-market vehicle, the Model 3 sedan.
Tesla came in for criticism for the tardy progress on production of the new model, for which hundreds of thousands prospective buyers have made deposits.
About 25,000 vehicles rolled out of Tesla works in the three months that ended 30 September, but only 260 of those were Model 3s, the number is nowhere near 1,500 it had projected.
According to the automaker, the low production rate of the new car to is due to the unexpected bottlenecks in its manufacturing system.
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has set aggressive targets for the expansion of its plant in Fremont, California, which includes increasing annual production volume to 500,000 vehicles from 100,000.
However, the firings reported first by The Mercury News, of San Jose, California, could indicate that personnel problems have contributed to the early troubles in
manufacturing the Model 3 according to commentators.
The electric carmaker said in a statement that it regularly conducts annual performance reviews that often result in promotions or bonuses, as also dismissals.