Tesla has cut 2,700 jobs from its electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas, around the same time the firm reported a 9% revenue decline during the first quarter.
A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed with the state on Tuesday said 2,688 people were laid off as of April 19 at Tesla's Texas Gigafactory location, amounting to roughly 12% of the factory's workforce. The filing comes about a week after Tesla reported it would cut 10% of its global workforce, or 14,000 jobs.
Tesla has also cut the price of its Model S, X and Y vehicles by $2,000 in the United States, according to news reports.
The workforce and price cuts coincided with Tesla’s first quarter earnings call on Tuesday, when the company reported negative $2.5 billion in free cash flow and a sales decline.
Still, the workforce reduction was not viewed by Tesla’s executives as a sign of a struggling market for electric vehicles, with the company instead noting job cuts were the result of "redundancies," according to CFO Vaibhav Taneja.
The cuts aren't expected to impact Tesla’s real estate footprint, as the company looks “to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth," according to Musk.
“We’re not giving up anything that is significant that I’m aware of,” Musk said during the Tesla earnings call on April 23. “We’ve had a long period of prosperity from 2019 to now.
“We've made some corrections along the way,” Musk continued. “But it is time to reorganize the company for the next phase of growth and you really need to reorganize it.”
The Tesla CEO also doubled down on the value of electric vehicles, comparing gasoline cars to "riding a horse and using a flip phone."
“We continue to make the necessary investments that will drive growth and profits for Tesla in the future," Musk said.