New York: Tesla Inc's chief executive officer told employees on Monday the company is undergoing a "thorough reorganisation", as it contends with production problems, senior staff departures and two crashes last week involving its electric, self-driving cars.
CEO Elon Musk said in an email it was "flattening the management structure to improve communication", combining functions and trimming activities "not vital to the success of our mission" in the reorganisation. The company confirmed the note that was disclosed earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
Tesla is at a critical juncture as it tries to fix production headaches that have slowed the rollout of its Model 3 sedan, a mid-market car seen as key to the company's success, and as it expands on other fronts.
Tesla shares fell 1.3 per cent to $297 on Monday.
Senior Tesla executives have departed or cut back work. Waymo, Alphabet Inc's self-driving unit, said on Sunday that Matthew Schwall had joined the company from Tesla, where he was the electric carmaker's main technical contact with US safety investigators.
Last week, Tesla said Doug Field, senior vice-president of engineering, was taking time off to recharge.
Musk said on a May 2 earnings call that the company was "going to conduct sort of a reorganisation restructuring of the company ... this month and make sure we're well set up to achieve that goal."
He added that "the number of sort of third-party contracting companies that we're using has really gotten out of control, so we're going to scrub the barnacles on that front. It's pretty crazy. You've got barnacles on barnacles. So there's going to be a lot of barnacle removal."
Tesla will still rapidly hire critical positions "to support the Model 3 production ramp and future product development", Musk said in the email.
In the latest crash last week that have drawn attention, a Tesla Model S sedan was travelling at 97kmph when it smashed into a fire truck stopped at a red light in South Jordan, Utah, about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City on Friday night, according to police. The Tesla driver suffered a broken ankle.
Witnesses said the Tesla sedan did not brake prior to impact, police said, adding it was unknown if the Autopilot feature in the Model S was engaged at the time. Last week a Tesla car accident in Fort Lauderdale on May 8 killed two teenagers. Reuters
