Electric car maker Tesla Inc’s move last week to cut 9 percent of its workforce is to sharply downsize the residential solar business it bought two years ago in a controversial US$2.6 billion deal, according to three internal company documents and seven current and former Tesla solar employees.
The latest cuts to the division that was once SolarCity Corp — a sales and installation company founded by two cousins of Tesla CEO Elon Musk — include closing about a dozen installation facilities, internal company documents showed, and ending a retail partnership with Home Depot Inc that the current and former employees said generated about half of its sales.
About 60 installation facilities are to remain open, an internal company list reviewed by reporters showed.
Photo: Bloomberg
An internal company e-mail named 14 facilities scheduled for closure, but the other list included only 13 of those locations.
Tesla declined to comment on which sites it planned to shut down, how many employees would lose their jobs or what percentage of the solar workforce they represent.
Cuts to its overall energy team — including batteries to store power — were in line with the broader 9 percent staff cut, the company said.
“We continue to expect that Tesla’s solar and battery business will be the same size as automotive over the long term,” Tesla said in a statement.
The operational closures, which have not been previously reported, raised new questions about the viability of cash-strapped Tesla’s solar business and Musk’s rationale for a merger he once called a “no-brainer,” but which some investors have panned as a bailout of an affiliated firm at the expense of Tesla shareholders.
Before the merger, Musk had served as chairman of SolarCity’s board of directors.
The installation offices that the internal e-mail said had been targeted for closure were in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Arizona and Delaware.
The company also fired dozens of solar customer service staffers at call centers in Nevada and Utah, said the former Tesla employees, some of whom were terminated in last week’s cuts.
“It’s been a difficult few days — no one can deny this,” a Tesla manager wrote in a separate internal e-mail sent to customer service employees shortly after the cuts were announced.
Tesla has been burning through cash as it tries to hit a target of producing 5,000 Model 3 electric sedans per week after production delays.
The firm faces investor pressure to turn a profit without having to tap Wall Street for additional capital.
The total number of cuts to the solar workforce remained unclear.
Some personnel at facilities closing down were being transferred to other sites, the current and former employees said.
SolarCity employed about 15,000 people at the end of 2015, but has since cut thousands of workers.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
RSS