Tesla China working to rehire some laid-off employees, report says
It's not an easy work, however, as some of the laid-off Tesla employees have joined brands including Nio Onvo.
Some of Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) China teams are rehiring laid-off employees, mainly in sales and service, local media outlet Jiemian said in a report today, citing multiple former employees.
Two months ago, Tesla initiated its largest layoffs since 2017 globally, at more than 14 percent. In China, the sales and service departments were the most affected, the report noted.
Some of the stores in malls where the layoffs were more intense retained only five to six people, which is unfavorable to normal store operations, the report said, citing a former Tesla sales employee.
Typically, Tesla's stores in malls have eight to nine employees, the report noted.
However, some laid-off Tesla China employees have shown little interest in the rehiring.
Some have joined other brands, including Nio (NYSE: NIO) Onvo, to start new jobs, the report said.
Nio launched the Onvo brand on May 15 and began pre-sales of the sub-brand's first model, the L60, at a pre-sale price of RMB 219,900 ($30,260), which is RMB 30,000 less than the entry-level version of the Tesla Model Y.
The official launch and delivery of the Onvo L60 will be in September, Nio previously said, without revealing a specific date.
On June 19, local media outlet Internet Info Agency reported that the Onvo L60 will be officially launched on September 10.
Before the Onvo brand was officially launched, Nio had already begun a recruitment drive for the new brand.
On April 1, Kevin, who is verified on Weibo as Nio's senior director of human resources, posted nine posters on Weibo sharing the available positions for Onvo.
Positions being recruited at the time included head of marketing, store manager, social media operations, social media communications, and head of live streaming, some of which were based in Shanghai, where Nio's global headquarters is located, and some of which were based in other cities.
A more positive sign for the Tesla China team is the return of senior vice president Tom Zhu, Jiemian's report today noted.
Zhu has been mostly working to understand the situation in the stores recently, and while there have been no sweeping changes, his return is boosting team morale somewhat, according to the report.
Tesla China sales hit 17,000 units last week, returning to its best week of the quarter, Jiemian noted.
Meanwhile, Tesla China is also working to prevent salespeople from creating fake orders, after high incentives prompted them to be motivated to do so, according to the report.
($1 = RMB 7.2667)
Tesla sells 55,215 cars in China in May, up 76% from Apr