Musk Claims Tesla Employee Tried To Sabotage Automaker

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says the company has discovered an employee conducting damaging sabotage to the automaker’s operations.

In an email sent to Tesla employees, Musk revealed that the saboteur had made changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System and exported sensitive data to “unknown third parties.”

“The full extent of his actions are not yet clear, but what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad. His stated motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move,” the email reads.

“However, there may be considerably more to this situation than meets the eye, so the investigation will continue in depth this week. We need to figure out if he was acting alone or with others at Tesla and if he was working with any outside organizations.”

Musk went on to assert that the saboteur was one of just many different parties that wants Tesla to fail.

“These include Wall Street short-sellers, who have already lost billions of dollars and stand to lose a lot more. Then there are the oil & gas companies, the wealthiest industry in the world — they don’t love the idea of Tesla advancing the progress of solar power & electric cars,” Musk said.

The email was obtained by CNBC and confirmed to be legitimate by several Tesla employees.

The discovery of this saboteur comes at a crucial time for Tesla as it continues to ramp up production of the Model 3 with the hope of building 5000 units per week by the end of June. As part of a company restructuring, Tesla also announced last week that it will cut 9 per cent of its workforce.