- Elon Musk wanted Tesla to reduce its workforce by one-fifth, Bloomberg reported.
- Musk wanted the layoffs to match the drop in quarterly vehicle deliveries.
- Tesla delivered 386,810 cars in the first quarter of 2024, a 20.1% drop from the last quarter.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk at one point wanted the EV giant to trim its workforce by 20%, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The reduction, Musk reasoned, should match the reduction in vehicle deliveries between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, per Bloomberg.
Also it’s weird to compare consecutive quarters instead of year-over-year quarters, isn’t it?
Yes you don’t normally compare q4 to q1 because cars are seasonal.
For example, the Chinese new year is in Q1 and always results in fewer cars.
It should always be comparing the same quarter as the previous year.
The media often uses this to their advantage to paint good or bad pictures of companies depending on if their masters want someone to look good or bad.
You need both and trailing twelve months as well as annualized and probably a few others to get a complete picture. Cars have a lot of seasonality, so you’re absolutely not wrong.