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Elon Musk sent a late-night email on Monday saying the company is being "absolutely hardcore" about layoffs, according to a report from The Information.
Now, the billionaire may be walking back what he said.
The email announced the departure of two senior executives and said both of their teams would be eliminated, with a small number of employees reassigned, The Information reported. One of the dissolved divisions, the supercharging team, would mean 500 jobs being cut, according to the report.
But now, there are already discussions about rehiring some of the impacted workers, Bloomberg reported. Bringing back laid-off staff would allow Tesla to continue operating the supercharger network and grow it at a slower rate, according to insiders who spoke to Bloomberg.
Tesla didn't respond to Business Insider's questions about the reported rehiring.
Musk confirmed plans to grow at a slower pace in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.
"Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations," Musk said in the post.
Still, the job cuts concerned EV executives at companies like Rivian, Ford, and General Motors, according to the Bloomberg report. The three carmakers use Tesla's charging connectors for EVs and are preparing for a busy summer, the report said.
The departure of the senior director for charging infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, meant these brands lost a main point of communication, the Bloomberg report said.
But some workers in the EV industry think the layoffs could be a way for Musk to restructure the supercharger team — and make it better.
Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, an EV chargepoint installer that works on Tesla's network, told Reuters that "there's no way Musk would walk away from effectively free money."
"It may be possible Mr. Musk will reconstitute the EV charger team in a bigger, badder, more Muskian way," Pinter said.
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