Tesla is Actively Hiring Staff in China Despite Musk’s Memo

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Tesla (NASDAQ:) carried on with its online hiring event in China and announced two dozen new job openings in the country just a week after the carmaker’s CEO Elon Musk warned of job cuts, Reuters reports.

The world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker by market cap plans to hire new employees for its “smart manufacturing roles,” the company wrote in a post.

At the moment, the EV maker has 224 open job postings in China for managers and engineers for that category following the latest addition of 24 new job openings on June 9, according to Reuters.

Tesla is also looking to hire managers and engineers who would oversee the operations of Giga Press, the company’s 6,000-ton die casting machines.

The carmaker hosts online hiring events on a regular basis in China. Before this, the company hosted a similar event for summer interns last month.

In the meantime, Tesla produced 33,544 China-made EV units in May vs 10,757 in April, according to China’s Passenger Car Association (PCA).

Tesla saw its revenue more than double in China last year on an annual basis, accounting for roughly 25% of the company’s total income.

Tesla’s Shanghai factory produced more than half of the cars the company made in 2021, with the carmaker planning to expand the plant in the future. Tesla produces Model 3 and Model Y vehicles at its Shanghai plant.

But Tesla saw a significant production hit at the plant after Shanghai’s authorities imposed a two-month coronavirus lockdown that closed the factory for 22 days and made it difficult for the carmaker to return to full production after reopening.

Tesla stock price is up over 3% in pre-open Thursday after UBS upgraded shares to Buy.

Analyst Patrick Hummel commented that media reports about Musk’s email to staff on job cuts don’t change his positive long-term outlook on TSLA.