Shares in Tesla fell five percent on Monday after the electric car maker was found to have asked some US suppliers to return payments.
In a memo obtained by the Wall Street Journal, a global supply manager was asked to return a “meaningful amount of money of its payments since 2016.”
The news comes after the group have announced plans to cut several thousand jobs in an effort to reduce costs.
In a statement released on Monday, Tesla said: “Negotiation is a standard part of the procurement process, and now that we’re in a stronger position with Model 3 production ramping, it is a good time to improve our competitive advantage in this area.”
“We’re focused on reaching a more sustainable long term cost basis, not just finding one-time reductions for this quarter, and that’s good for Tesla, our shareholders, and our suppliers who will also benefit from our increasing production volume and future growth opportunities.”
“We asked fewer than 10 suppliers for a reduction in total capex project spend for long-term projects that began in 2016 but are still not complete, and any changes with these suppliers would improve our future cash flows, but not impact our ability to achieve profitability in Q3. The remainder of our discussions with suppliers are entirely focused on future parts price and design or process changes that will help us lower fundamental costs rather than prior period adjustments of capex projects. This is the right thing to do,” the statement finished.
In May, Tesla said the group expected a positive GAAP net income by its third and fourth quarters. Data compiled by Bloomberg has shown the company has been blowing through $7,430 every minute – equating to about $1 billion a quarter.
Shares in the group have been volatile, falling from a high of $370 in mid-June to around $301 on Monday.
Shares recently took a plunge after Elon Musk launched a personal attack on the rescue worker who offered to rescue the team of Thai soccer players from a system of flooded caves.
Shares in the group also plunged in early May after Musk responded to analyst questions by saying they were “so dry. They’re killing me.”
The comment led to Tesla’s stock decline by six percent in about a 20-minute period.
Shares in the group (NASDAQ: TSLA) are currently trading down 3.31 percent at 30320 (0939GMT).