Tesla cutting almost 10 per cent of jobs

Tesla chief Elon Musk has announced that the company will shed 9 per cent of its employees in a bid to cut costs without affecting production of its new sedan.

Tesla is cutting about 9 per cent of jobs across the company, billionaire chief executive Elon Musk says as it seeks to reduce costs without endangering the critical ramp-up of production of its Model 3 sedan.

Tweeting pictures of an email he said had been leaked to media, Musk said that the cuts were part of a simplification of Tesla's management structure promised last month.

"As part of this effort, and the need to reduce costs and become profitable, we have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9 per cent of our colleagues across the company," the email read.

"These cuts were entirely from our salaried population and no production associates were included, so this will not affect our ability to reach Model 3 production targets in the coming months."

Tesla's latest annual filing last December showed it had 37,543 full-time employees.

Up nearly 7 per cent earlier on Tuesday, shares of the company trimmed gains to stand 3.5 per cent higher at $344 (A$455) by early afternoon.