Elon Musk tell Tesla staff he's ratted out a mole

Musk wrote that the company would investigate the matter this week, and Tesla needed to determine whether the person was acting alone or in concert with "any outside organizations".

In a tweetstorm that could at times be mistaken for the work of a troll who had hijacked his account, Tesla CEO Elon Musk unleashed a stream of criticism at his detractors, mostly in the media, amid.

While he concedes such instances of sabotage are often motivated by "something simple like wanting to get back at someone within the company or at the company as a whole", Musk urges the staff to whom he sent the email to "be extremely vigilant".

The email, contained in a tweet by Tesla New York, and covered by CNBC, was pulled down within minutes.

In his email, released by CNBC, Musk has claimed that the saboteur has done an extensive and damaging sabotage to Tesla's operations. "In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move". While he says this could be a random event, Musk quotes former Intel CEO Andy Grove's "Only the paranoid survive" warning. Musk listed "oil & gas companies" and "Wall Street short sellers" as being among the company's potential enemies. He added: "If they're willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they're willing to cheat in other ways?"

But documents the company filed days later with the state of California show that more than 400 workers will be terminated at its Fremont factory, including dozens of directors, managers, technicians and other workers in manufacturing, engineering and quality inspection.

Musk thanked departing staff for their service, saying the company was "making this hard decision now so that we never have to do this again"; he also promised Tesla would "continue to flatten" its management structure.

ELON "MUSK" GRIMES has let rip a barrage of vitriol over alleged sabotage at his Tesla factory.

Tesla has made around 30,000 Model 3 vehicles in 2018, according to internal documents viewed by Business Insider and confirmed by two Tesla employees.

Earlier on Monday, Musk sent a separate email to employees informing them of a "small fire" on Sunday at a company facility. "Please be on the alert for anything that's not in the best interests of our company".

Musk said the reorganisation did not affect hourly-paid assembly-line employees and was not expected to delay manufacturing targets.