Musk deepens 'severe' job cuts at Tesla

Elon Musk's electric vehicle company has already laid off a tenth of its workforce. Photo: AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi

​​Elon Musk has called for «absolutely brutal» job cuts at Tesla as the company lays off hundreds more employees in an attempt to control costs.

The electric car maker's CEO told managers that employees who were not «excellent, necessary and trustworthy» should be eliminated.

This comes a week after Tesla laid off about 14,000 employees, about a tenth of the company's workforce.

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Tesla has fired two key executives while cutting entire teams.

Rebecca Tinucci, head of the Supercharger network, and Daniel Ho, head of new products, are leaving.

Supercharger Ms. Tinucci's 500-employee Tesla team and lobbying efforts are also rejected.

«I hope these actions send the message that we need to be absolutely tough on headcount and cost cutting,» Musk wrote in email to executives, according to technology news site The Information.

«While some executives are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so.»

Last week, Tesla reported its biggest drop yet sales for 12 years. and falling profits amid falling demand for electric vehicles and growing competition from China.

The company's shares have soared in recent days as it vowed to speed up production of a new, cheaper car and made progress toward releasing its fully self-driving technology in China.

However, the company's shares have still fallen by more than 25% this year.