Recent news has revealed that electric vehicle leader Tesla has hired a large number of new workers in Texas this year. The number of employees at the Texas Gigafactory currently exceeds 20,000, an increase of more than 60% from the end of last year. This news was reported by the local Texas media "Austin Business Journal". Tesla's Texas factory production director Jason Shawhan shared the number of employees at the factory in a keynote speech last week.
According to reports, Musk’s company is known for being tight-lipped, and Shawhan’s public appearances are rare. In his speech, Shawhan not only introduced the operations of the Texas factory in detail, but also shared some of the production principles of the company CEO Elon Musk.
Executives previously revealed that the Texas factory will have 12,277 employees at the end of 2022, which has exceeded Musk's earlier estimate. However, Shawhan said that now more than 20,000 employees work on site every day, most of them from remote areas, which is also one of the company's main difficulties in large-scale recruitment.
"Basically, we were bringing in tons and tons of people," Shawhan said, which at one point resulted in not enough parking spaces for workers. To solve this problem, Tesla is now building a parking lot near the factory. He added that a large employee base also means Tesla needs to pay attention to company culture and safety.
Almost immediately, Tesla became one of the largest employers in the central part of the state, second only to local supermarket chain HEB, according to data from Media Research. It is understood that the Texas factory mainly produces Model Y, with an annual output of more than 250,000 vehicles. Shawhan said production of the electric pickup truck Cybertruck will also begin at the plant soon.
According to a report in June, Tesla revealed in a message to suppliers that the company planned to produce 375,000 Cybertrucks per year. According to a crazy statement in the technology media, after the Texas factory fully increases the production of Cybertruck, the number of employees will increase to 60,000.
Yesterday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against Detroit's three major automakers entered its 11th day, and the strike wave further expanded. Media analysts believe that no matter what the final result is, traditional American car companies will definitely spend more money, which will further enhance Tesla's huge cost advantage in the field of electric vehicles.
However, some analysts believe that the impact of the UAW strike may affect Tesla. Musk has spent the past year largely blocking union formation. Art Wheaton, a labor expert at Cornell University, said the UAW's actions to obtain higher wages could put pressure on Tesla.