Tesla Is Getting Rid Of Tons Of Sales Staff

Happy Tuesday! It’s April 16, 2024, and this is The Morning Shift, your daily roundup of the top automotive headlines from around the world, in one place. Here are the important stories you need to know.

1st Gear: Tesla Layoffs Include Tons Of Salespeople

Yesterday, Tesla announced it was shaving off more than 10 percent of the company, thanks to flagging sales. Today, we’re starting to see where those cuts will come from, and it turns out there are a lot of sales folks on the chopping block. From Reuters:

Tesla’s global job cuts include reducing staff in the U.S. and China, the automakers’ two biggest markets, across sales, tech, and engineering, five sources briefed on the matter said.

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Several U.S.-based service centres saw heavy layoffs effective immediately, primarily of sales staff and technicians, one source said. Another location laid off all front-of-house staff, the source said.

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Two sources said members of Tesla’s China sales team were being notified they were being made redundant, with one saying more than 10% were losing their jobs.

As someone who went to college for business, I can confirm that this is exactly how it works: When your product isn’t selling enough, you get rid of the people who sell it. The products that sell best are the ones that aren’t sold by anyone.

2nd Gear: GM Is Moving Its Headquarters

General Motors has been a fixture of the Detroit landscape since approximately the beginning of time, but now the company wants to change the specifics of how that fixture looks. It’s moving its headquarters off of the waterfront, and deeper into the city. From Reuters:

General Motors in 2025 will move its headquarters deeper into downtown Detroit, the U.S. automaker said on Monday, after spending more than 20 years in its riverfront home at the Renaissance Center.

GM will place its global headquarters a few blocks away from the so-called RenCen, in a sleek new high-rise building called Hudson’s, which will be the second-tallest skyscraper in Detroit.

“It’s important to all of us at GM that we continue to call Detroit our home for a long time to come,” CEO Mary Barra said at a press conference. The new headquarters will provide collaborative areas for employees, space to host events as well as display vehicles, she said.

This sounds like a small change — “a few blocks” — so I went and mapped it out.

Yeah, that’s a small change. Remember when Cadillac tried to move out to New York? That was big. This won’t even change GM employees’ access to lunch spots.

3rd Gear: Honda Will Start Work On Its Own EV

The Honda Prologue is fine enough, but it’s just that — a prologue, a vehicle Honda could put on the books and on dealer floors until it gets an actual Honda-built EV off the ground. Now, it sounds like that’s due to happen next year. From Automotive News:

Construction of Honda’s $4.4 billion electric vehicle and battery hub in Ohio is on track to begin vehicle and battery assembly in 2025.

The Japanese automaker is spending $700 million to retool three plants to produce EVs and EV components, and is building a battery factory from the ground up as part of a $3.5 billion joint venture with LG Energy Solution. The new EV hub, northwest of Columbus, Ohio, will create 300 jobs.

At a time when some automakers are slowing their EV development programs, Honda has several EV projects underway. Localizing EV production in North America is a crucial consideration for automakers as the market continues to develop.

Honda certainly loves Ohio, perhaps almost as much as GM loves Detroit. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the next EV in Honda’s lineup, ready to see if it feels truly Honda.

4th Gear: Stellantis Cuts Jobs, Offers CEO $39 Million

Stellantis is cutting jobs and shifting production around in order to save money. Now, CEO Carlos Tavares is looking at all that saved money like the last slice of an office pizza, asking “Is anyone gonna eat that?” and not waiting for an answer. From Automotive News:

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares’ jump in 2023 compensation is getting pushback as the Jeep maker pursues deep job cuts and tough savings goals in the EV transition.

At Tuesday’s annual general meeting, advisory firms Glass Lewis and Proxinvest are urging investors to vote against approving the €36.5 million ($39 million) total compensation package, up almost 60 percent from 2022 levels. The package includes a new incentive award worth €10 million tied to meeting electrification and software goals. Two years ago, investors rejected Tavares’s pay plan in a non-binding vote after opposition in France.

The manufacturer has come under intense scrutiny in Italy as it seeks to reduce headcount and shift production of electric vehicles to lower-cost countries such as Morocco. Stellantis and other mass-market carmakers including Renault and Volkswagen Group are struggling to profitably make affordable EVs, which is becoming crucial to win out against competition from Chinese rivals grows and to reignite slowing EV uptake.

If you’re a recently laid-off Stellantis worker, know that the complete uprooting of your life and cessation of your healthcare went to a good cause: Paying one guy more money.

Reverse: Cleveland Invents Numbers