Tesla was proceeding with an online hiring event in China and added two dozen new job postings for the country. Elon Musk threatened job cuts at Tesla last week, claiming that the company was “overstaffed” in some areas. Tesla (TSLA.O) plans to hold the event online starting from 7 p.m. Shanghai time (1100 GMT) and will recruit staff for “smart manufacturing” roles, according to an online post.
Tesla has 224 current openings in China for managers and engineers under that category. Tesla’s China revenue more than doubled in 2021 from a year ago, contributing to a quarter of the total income for the U.S. automaker.
The Shanghai plant, which manufactures Model 3 and Model Ys for domestic sale and export, produced more than half of the cars it made last year. However, output at the plant was badly hit by Shanghai’s two-month COVID-19 lockdown. That saw it halt work for 22 days and later struggle to return to full production. Prior to this, Tesla had planned to ramp up production at the plant to 22,000 cars a week by mid-May.
Musk last month compared U.S. workers to those in China. Saying American workers tended to try to avoid going to work whereas Chinese workers would not leave the factories.
They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil,” he said at a conference of Chinese workers.
-Reuters.
