Report: Tesla Fires Hundreds Of Workers

(RTTNews) - Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) has fired hundreds of employees this week even as the electric vehicle maker plans to boost production of its new mass-market Model 3 Sedan, the San Jose Mercury News reported Friday.

The report quoted a Tesla spokesman as saying that the employee departures were a result of performance reviews and the company continues to hire new employees around the world. Most of the dismissals were said to be outside of manufacturing, involving administrative and sales positions.

Former and current Tesla employees told the San Jose Mercury News that employees of the Model X, Model S and former SolarCity operations seemed to have been targeted in the dismissals.

Workers estimate that between 400 to 700 employees have been fired by Tesla. They also reportedly said there was little or no warning to these employees ahead of their dismissals.

Tesla has missed targets for producing the lower-cost Model 3 sedan. In the recent third quarter, the company produced only 260 Model 3 sedans despite having the vehicle a waiting list of more than 450,000 customers. However, Tesla has emphasized that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain.

Tesla said on Thursday that it is recalling about 11,000 Model X sport utility vehicles due to a possible issue with their second-row fold-flat seats.