Tesla has responded to a report in the Wall Street Journal Sunday that the company asked a supplier last week to return a “meaningful amount of money of its payments since 2016.”
Tesla has responded to a report in the Wall Street Journal Sunday that the company asked a supplier last week to return a “meaningful amount of money of its payments since 2016.”
Tesla said that it was negotiating with suppliers in an effort to reach a “more sustainable long-term cost basis,” and that it had contacted fewer than 10 suppliers with these requests. The company said that its other discussions with suppliers were focused on price negotiations for future shipments.
In a tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also said, “Only costs that actually apply to Q3 & beyond will be counted. It would not be correct to apply historical cost savings to current quarter.”
The supplier negotiations have called Telsa’s financial position into question. The company lost nearly $2 billion last year and burned about $3.4 billion in cash after capital investments. It had $2.7 billion in cash at the end of the March quarter.
Here’s the company’s full explanation of why it is asking this of some, but not all, of its suppliers:
Shares in Tesla were trading down by more than 3 percent late Monday, following the report.
— Tae Kim contributed to this report.
