Tesla to lay off about 9% of staff amid Musk’s promises to leave Model 3 ramp-up unaffected

Tesla will lay off about 9% of its employees beginning this week, CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

Musk posted an email he sent to Tesla employees on Twitter after the email leaked to news outlets.

"Difficult, but necessary Tesla reorg underway," Musk said in a tweet accompanying images of the email, Business Insider reports.

In the email, Musk said the layoffs would primarily affect salaried employees, sparing production-line workers as the company ramps up Model 3 production. He said Tesla had developed redundancies in some job functions that were no longer necessary.