Musk’s ‘absolutely hardcore’ Tesla layoffs could hurt EVs everywhere

Tesla is eliminating most employees on the electric vehicle company’s Policy and Supercharger teams, along with several long-time executives. The cuts come on top of a recent layoff affecting 10% of the company’s global workforce.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an email to staff that he will be “absolutely hardcore” about staffing at Tesla — his signature phrase to signal hard work ahead. He said any executive “who retains more than three people who don’t obviously pass the excellent, necessary and trustworthy test” should resign, according to the email, first reported by The Information.

Nixing the Supercharger team could hinder Tesla’s dominance over the global EV charging network, experts said, but Musk said on X that Tesla is still committed to growing the network, but at “a slower pace for new locations” and would instead focus on optimizing existing charger locales.