One in 10 of Tesla's workforce is set to walk after cuts were announced across the gloval EV brand.

News website Eletrek broke a report of the original memo from billionaire boss Elon Musk who also owns X, formerly known as Twitter.

In the memo, Mr Musk said he hated the decision but that "it must be done".

Tesla is the world's largest vehicle maker against the yardstick of market value, but with 140,473 employees, it has found itself on shifting economic ground.

The global EV map is moving fast, but for the real drama, look east: in 2023, while the USA produced more than 1.4m EVs, China's output went beyond 7.8m (while we turned out 484,000 in the UK).

Mr Musk's email told staff: "We have gone through a thorough review of the organisation and made he difficult decision to reduce our headcount my more than 10% globally."

The email added that the cuts will enable Tesla to be "lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle".

Elsewhere it is reported that many staff in receipt of the memo then found themselves locked out of Tesla's email system.

Earlier this month, Punchline-Gloucester.com reported on Tesla's bumpy sales road into 2024 with a 9% decline in momentum amid a host of claimed reasons. But China's confident push into the world EV market with a resulting downward pressure on forecourt prices is most likely to be Tesla's key headache. Frontrunners for the attention of wealthier customers include BYD's Seal, which faces up to Tesla's Model 3 saloon, and is priced at £45,695.

European makers are also gearing up to present EV options that disrupt the growing EV market. By autumn 2024, Renault is planning to offer a sub-£15,000 runabout, the Spring, through its budget brand Dacia.

And in Berlin, protestors are currently camped out in a treehouse protest to try to prevent Tesla's planned tripling of its Germany 'gigafactory', one of their key campaign claims being that Tesla is not offering green solutions but simply "building heavy cars with fast acceleration".

● Tesla shares are now trading for around $170. At their peak, in November 2021, they were selling at more than $400.