Tesla dismisses entire US expansion team hired just 4 months ago.

Tesla has made significant job cuts, including the elimination of a newly formed marketing team, signalling a departure from CEO Elon Musk’s prior emphasis on advertising. The US “growth content” team, overseen by senior manager Alex Ingram, was disbanded, with Ingram and global team leader Jorge Milburn being let go. Elon Musk criticized the team’s work as being “far too generic” in a post on X responding to Bloomberg’s report.

These cutbacks represent a shift from Tesla’s previous avoidance of traditional advertising platforms, such as television, radio, print, and online ads, in favor of building brand recognition through word-of-mouth. Last year, Musk had announced a willingness to experiment with advertising. The decision to embrace advertising coincides with Musk’s acquisition of the company formerly known as Twitter, as the social media platform sought to address a decline in ad revenue.

The reduction in Tesla’s growth team is part of the company’s largest-ever job cuts, impacting more than 10% of the global workforce. Bloomberg reported Musk’s push for a 20% reduction, potentially leading to the elimination of over 20,000 jobs. This news has caused Tesla’s shares to drop by 3% in New York and the stock has seen a decline of over 40% this year, making it the second-worst performer in the S&P 500 Index.

Overall, this move represents a deviation from Tesla’s previous marketing strategy, reflecting larger challenges facing the company amidst slowing global EV sales growth and increased competition in the market.