Elon Musk insists Gigafactory's ALL GO as China charging fears hit Tesla shares

Tesla Motors is downsizing its Chinese operations, following its failure to meet expected sales targets.

Chinese Tesla spokesman Gary Tao has been quoted confirming that Tesla was making "structural changes" to its business in China "to better respond to the Chinese market."

A Tesla representative told The Register today that:

"The restructuring, which is nearly done, was part of the implementation of our 2015 China Strategies announced by Tom Zhu, General Manager for Tesla, at the beginning of the year, so as to build a strong and highly efficient team to quickly respond to the market and better serve customers. The current China team is strong and steady. We’re committed to and confident in the business in China."

It's understood that between 180 to 600 jobs have been affected - up to 30 per cent of all Tesla staff in China. The cuts are a reaction to consumer worries about the lack of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, which has seen the company's unsold inventory swell.

This is only the latest issue in a series of public concerns that has seen Tesla Motors' share price slowly sink from this point last year. Owner Elon Musk has estimated the company may not become profitable until 2020, although growth and development is expected to continue until then.

It is not only Chinese consumers. Rumours that the development of Tesla's Reno-based Gigafactory was stalling drew Elon Musk to Twitter to declare otherwise:

There is no slowdown of the Gigafactory construction underway, as anyone near Reno with eyes can verify. It's not subtle.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 8, 2015

A user's post in the Investor Discussions section of the Tesla Motors Club forum featured drone pictures that seemed to display ongoing development.

Citing 2020 as the Annus mirabilis again, in a press statement last year, Tesla claimed its Gigafactory will then be producing more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. ®