Tesla did not have the greatest 2014 in China. Although the government is eager to promote the use of electric cars, Tesla’s sales were weak. Weak enough to make Tesla founder Elon Musk upset. Musk reportedly threatened firings at Tesla China, and now Chinese newspaper The Economic Observer is reporting that the company is engaged in large-scale layoffs.
According to the Economic Observer, Tesla China has about 600 employees, and it plans to cut around 30 percent of them (or around 180 people). “Before Spring Festival they had already started [layoffs],” one Tesla China employee told the paper. “Big departments like sales, marketing, public relations, and administration have all had cuts. The proportion of cuts in each department isn’t the same; in a big department like sales the plan is to cut 50 percent.”