Tesla is closing a first wave of stores starting today

Following the announcement that it is gradually taking all sales online, Tesla is now starting to close a first wave of stores today – more will follow in the coming weeks.

In an email to employees last week, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla was launching a review of its sales and marketing effort and it will start closing stores in the coming weeks.

Sources familiar with the matter have told Electrek that Tesla already informed employees at a few dozen stores, mainly in California and in the US, that they should call their clients to reschedule test drives and appointments to other stores because they are closing their locations.

Tesla is only trickling down information to employees and it’s still unclear which stores are being closed. We expect a full list for the first wave on Monday.

Some employees are told not to show up for work on Monday, but they are told that they will remain on payroll until further notice.

Earlier this weekend, we reported on Tesla slashing retail employee compensation.

Those employees are told to keep business as usual and they don’t have any information if their job and store will be affected by the new strategy.

As previously reported, some of those employees feel like Tesla is trying to push them out by cutting their compensation during the transition period.

We contacted Tesla about the situation yesterday, but the company didn’t answer our inquiry.