Tesla CEO emails employees about 'sabotage' incident

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reported that the EV manufacturer has been ’sabotaged’.

A disgruntled employee broke into the company’s manufacturing operating system and sent highly sensitive data to unknown third parties, according to an email Elon Musk sent to staff.

The worker did “extensive and damaging sabotage” to Tesla’s operations, Musk wrote in the memo late on Sunday.

A small fire on a manufacturing line had stopped production for several hours. Tesla is conducting an in-depth investigation into the matter, including whether the employee was acting alone, with others at the company or with any outside organisations, Musk wrote.

After smouldering in an air filter in the welding area of Tesla’s body line was extinguished, production has resumed and there were no injuries or significant equipment damage.

“As you know, there are a long list of organisations that want Tesla to die,” Musk said.

The incident comes as Tesla attempts to ramp up production of its Model 3 to 5,000 cars a week, and after Musk announced that he was reducing Tesla’s workforce by 9 percent, with more than 3,000 workers losing their jobs.