Tesla announced Tuesday it would cut 9 percent of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs.
The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by Tesla's CEO Elon Musk in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1006597562156003328), will largely affect salaried employees and not the company's manufacturing line. Musk said the cuts were "difficult, but necessary" and won't hurt Tesla's ability to meet production targets for its Model 3 vehicle.
"They're focusing on the jobs that are going to be driving revenue and profit for the company and cutting everything else," said Galileo Russell, founder of HyperChange TV. "Obviously the Model 3 ramp is the most important thing right now and keeping that production line fully staffed is a must."
Tesla has experienced repeated production delays of its mass-market Model 3 for almost a year. Musk had said he expected to roll out 5,000 cars a week by the end of 2017, but with the assembly line mired in what he called "manufacturing hell," the target has been pushed back several times.
At the company's shareholder meeting last week, Musk said Tesla was now on track to make 6,000 Model 3 cars a week by the end of the month. That news sent shares soaring nearly 10 percent, their biggest gain since November 2015.
The stock was up as much as 7 percent Tuesday morning after the research firm Keybanc Capital raised its forecast for Model 3 deliveries by as much as 50 percent, to 35,000 cars, in the second quarter.
News of the layoffs ate into the stock's gains.
A Tesla spokesman said the job cuts would reduce Tesla's headcount to about 37,000 employees.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/tesla-to-cut-about-9-of-workforce).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
