Tesla axes Singapore manager after layoffs warning

Tesla has laid off its Singapore country manager Christopher Bousigues as part of a plan to trim 10% of its staff amid growing concerns over a looming recession.

Photo credit: Tesla

Bousigues, who announced that he got sacked in a LinkedIn post, said he was the first country manager of the US-based electric-vehicle (EV) maker’s Southeast Asia operations.

Over the past year, Bousigues said his team made the Model 3 EV a “common sight” in Singapore and helped set up two showrooms and one service center. He also developed a network of seven superchargers across the country and launched the Model Y EV, which got an “overwhelming response.”

“Transparency and honesty are non-negotiable to me, so sharing this news felt like the right thing to do with my network,” Bousigues wrote in his post. “I profoundly believe that when a door closes, a gate somewhere else opens.”

See also: Tracking layoffs across Asia’s startup ecosystem (Updated)

In a recent email to executives, Tesla co-founder Elon Musk asked them to “pause all hiring worldwide” and get ready for job cuts as he has a “super bad feeling” about the economy.

Musk also said that Tesla will slash the number of full-time employees as it has become “overstaffed in many areas” hiring more people who work by the hour. He noted that the layoffs do not apply to employees building cars and battery packs or those who install solar panels.