The new energy vehicle sector is burning money, and Tesla's layoffs are also helpless

At the beginning of 2019, some companies began to plan for the "bumpy" market in the future. Layoffs and cost-cutting have almost become the norm. Some companies have stopped recruiting or reduced the cost of recruitment, while others can only rely on layoffs to maintain development. The reason given is that this winter is a bit "cold", the development of enterprises has encountered too many difficulties, and more cost-cutting is needed to meet the needs of development. Tesla is undoubtedly one of them. What did Musk, who has always been good at "expressing" himself, say this time?

Musk said that Tesla is having a hard time. But in this cold winter, who is not having a hard time? Apple has encountered a major bottleneck in its development, dragging down its own industrial chain suppliers, and Foxconn has been reported to have laid off 50,000 people. The new energy vehicle field is a big spender, and layoffs may have become the norm for Tesla.

It is reported that on January 18, Tesla announced that as part of a cost-cutting plan, the company would lay off about 7% of its employees. The stock price then opened at $323.59, a sharp drop of 6.83%. Musk said that this move is aimed at cutting costs, allowing Tesla to sell Model 3 at a lower price. Musk said: "In the next few months, Tesla will need to make this layoff while increasing Model 3 production and make many improvements in manufacturing engineering."

It can be seen that Tesla's layoffs revealed two signals. One is that the price of Model 3 may still have room for reduction in the future; the other is that Tesla is still short of money. Lowering the price of Model 3 is undoubtedly to make it more price competitive. After all, the price of new energy vehicles is generally higher than that of traditional enterprises. As Musk said, Tesla has only been producing cars for about ten years, but it is facing large-scale and entrenched competitors. As a result, Tesla must work harder than other manufacturers to survive while making affordable and sustainable products.

In order to bring better expectations to shareholders, Musk also said, "In the third quarter of last year, we achieved a 4% profit. This is the first meaningful profit since the establishment of Tesla 15 years ago. However, this is partly because we give priority to selling the high-priced version of Model 3 in North America. In the fourth quarter, preliminary, unaudited results show that based on US generally accepted accounting principles, we will be profitable again, but lower than the third quarter. This quarter (the first quarter of this year), as in the third quarter, the higher-priced Model 3 models (this time sold to Europe and Asia) are expected to enable us to achieve a small profit despite great difficulties (but we have not given up our efforts, and we are also lucky). "

Musk also said that there was no choice but to lay off employees. Although Musk is still sometimes "outspoken", he still played various family cards when faced with layoffs. For example, he made a "choked up" announcement to win the market's favor, but the layoffs began shortly after Christmas, which was somewhat difficult for employees to accept. In fact, in addition to Tesla, SpaceX also laid off 10% of its employees. The lawsuits in which Musk "served" and the successive layoffs showed that survival does require more expenses, and reducing expenses can control costs, thereby allowing the development of the company to move forward with ease.

In fact, in addition to Tesla and Musk, we see that Apple and Cook are also facing considerable difficulties. In Cook's letter to investors, it has been clearly stated that Apple's future performance will decline and be under pressure. Cook also said, "Some departments will reduce recruitment. At the same time, Apple will lay off employees. As for which departments will lay off employees, Cook has not yet determined. What can be confirmed is that key departments such as Apple's artificial intelligence team will continue to add new employees at a strong pace. At the same time, Cook emphasized at the meeting that the importance of a department to Apple's future is not measured by the recruitment ratio." As we all know, Apple's reduction in recruitment and even layoffs have almost never happened in the past decade. Although the growth rate of the number of employees has slowed down in recent years, thanks to Apple's continued efforts in core technology, the number of employees is still a relatively objective number. Apple currently has more than 130,000 employees worldwide.

However, Apple may no longer be able to bear it, and layoffs have begun. In fact, from reducing the number of recruits to layoffs, all of this is just a vicious chain reaction caused by the cold reception of the iPhone market, and this sign is unlikely to improve, especially when Apple still has difficulty launching its own 5G mobile phone this year. People's enthusiasm for changing phones will not continue, and may even decline. Even if Apple starts to reduce prices in some markets for promotions, it has not resonated with the market, and users are not very selective. Perhaps Tesla's layoffs are also a helpless move. After all, companies need to survive first.