Tesla execs Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel among those leaving company in ... trends now
Two now-former Tesla executives, Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel, took to social media Monday to address their dual departure from the electric vehicle company.
Baglino was Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and energy, and Patel was vice president of public policy and business development. Their exits came shortly after the announcement that close to 14,000 Tesla employees were laid off today, roughly 10 percent of its workforce under founder Elon Musk.
In a post on X - also owned by Musk- Baglino wrote he was 'so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla' during his 18-year career there.
Patel was at Tesla for eight years and called himself the 'luckiest dude' thanks to his immigrant parents who 'worked their a**** off' in a post on X. Patel also has government experience, having served as a climate and energy policy senior advisor to President Barack Obama during his second term.
Neither Baglino nor Patel alluded to future career plans. Musk thanked them both for their service at the company in replies to their X posts.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced massive layoffs at Tesla on Monday. Roughly 14,000 workers are losing their jobs as part of the change
Rohan Patel (left) and Drew Baglino (right) were two of the more than 14,000 people laid off by Tesla on Monday
Tesla shares dropped this morning after the firm announced its layoffs as demands for its electric vehicles start to falter in a highly competitive market.
Musk sent a company-wide email over the weekend announcing the layoffs, tech publication Electrek reported Monday.
Musk, in the internal memo, said the 'difficult decision' to reduce staff will 'enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle'.
'There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done,' the billionaire said, as cited in the memo, before thanking 'everyone who is departing Tesla for their hard work over the years'.
Tesla, which is set to report its quarterly earnings on April 23, reported a decline in vehicle deliveries in the first quarter, its first in nearly four years and also below market expectations.
The company blamed its fall in deliveries on a drop in EV car demand, the arson attack at its factory near Berlin and supply-chain issues caused by the Red Sea conflict.
Rumors of a looming layoff had been spreading over the last few months after Tesla asked managers to identify critical team members, paused some stock rewards and canceled some employees' annual reviews, according to the report.
Tesla will lay off 'more than 10 percent' of its global workforce as demands for its electric vehicles starts to falter in a highly competitive market. Pictured is a file photo of a Tesla EV at a supercharger station in California last year
CEO Elon Musk, pictured in Los Angeles on Saturday, sent a company-wide email over the weekend announcing the layoffs, tech publication Electrek reported on Monday. Musk said the 'difficult decision' to reduce staff will 'enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle'
Tesla is also expected to shorten Cybertruck production shifts at its Gigafactory in Texas (pictured in February last year) despite Musk having recently insisted that Cybertruck is currently production constrained
Tesla, the world's largest automaker by market value, had 140,473 employees globally as of December 2023, according to its latest annual report.
The firm is also expected to shorten Cybertruck production shifts at its Gigafactory in Texas despite Musk having recently insisted that Cybertruck is currently production constrained.
The move comes as automakers across the world tighten their belts amid a slower than expected uptake of EVs.
BP has cut over a tenth of the workforce in its electric vehicle charging business and pulled it out of several markets after a bet on rapid growth in commercial EV fleets didn't pay off, company sources said on Monday.
However, China's electric vehicle market is understood to be booming, with Musk just last year hailing the country's carmakers as being 'by far our toughest competition'.
'I think the Chinese car companies are extremely competitive,' he said in November, warning: 'There's a lot of people out there who think that the top 10 car companies are going to be Tesla followed by nine Chinese car companies. I think they might not be wrong.'
