Massive Layoffs Come to Major EV Companies

Electric vehicle makers have taken quite the hit recently.

First there was the story about how such cars are just about useless for a road trip due to the massive charging times, frequency of charges necessary to keep the thing powered, and necessity of stopping at the sparse charging ports rather than just staying on the road and stopping at any random gas station, as is possible with gas-powered cars, which also need to fill up less and can do so in minutes rather than hours.

Then there was the loss that Ford’s new EV truck suffered when engaging in a pulling contest against a normal, gas-powered GM truck, though “loss” isn’t even the most appropriate word, as the electric truck didn’t even make it 100 miles into the competition before having to quit and turn around.

Further, electric vehicles, even if cheaper to charge than a gas-powered car is to fill up, are generally much more expensive than traditional vehicles, meaning that a recession will likely prove even harder on the EV companies or EV divisions of automakers than those that make cars with combustion-powered engines, with that being exacerbated by high-profile news of EV failures. Who wants to buy a truck that can’t pull a trailer 100 miles, particularly during a recession?

And so massive rounds of layoffs are coming to electric vehicle companies, particularly the non-manufacturing parts of such companies.

The LA Times recently reported, for instance, that Rivian, an EV company backed by Ford and supposed to deliver electric trucks to Amazon, and has factories mainly in deep-blue states like Michigan and California, is having to fire a chunk of its workforce, saying:

Rivian Automotive Inc. is planning hundreds of layoffs to trim its workforce in areas where the electric-vehicle maker has grown too quickly, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cuts will focus on nonmanufacturing roles, including teams with duplicate functions, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The actions could be announced in the coming weeks, the people said.

Similarly, Elon Musk’s Tesla has had to start firing employees, though mainly ones not on the manufacturing line, and also cut salaries for the next few months, as BGR reports, saying:

Elon Musk has claimed that Tesla will be reducing the overall headcount of its employees. The company chief claimed that the electric car maker will reduce the workforce by 10 percent within the period of three months. This comes days after a report cited Musk’s letter to employees claiming that 10 percent of employees will be laid off. 

Tesla won’t stop at headcount reduction. During the Qatar Economic Forum organized by Bloomberg, Musk claimed that the company will also be deducting salaries by 10 percent in the next three months. This is the company’s way of dealing with the global economic slowdown

And that’s after Elon all but begged employees that won’t show up to work in person to quit, saying: “Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week…Moreover, the office must be where your actual colleagues are located, not some remote pseudo office. If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

Manufacturing jobs are great and companies like Tesla are admirable innovators, but gas-powered cars still reign supreme; unlike EVs, they’re easy to take a road trip in, can fill up at pretty much every interstate exit, and are cheaper.

By: TheAmericanTribune.com, editor of TheAmericanTribune.com. Follow me on Facebook and Subscribe to My Email List