据报道，这位电动汽车制造商要求精选供应商退还其过去工作支付的部分资金，以帮助公司达到盈利能力，这华尔街日报报告。虽然尚不清楚特斯拉要求哪些供应商要求现金返还，或者多少华尔街日报说这笔钱是“有意义的”。特斯拉在发送给几家供应商的备忘录中说，现金返还是特斯拉的“继续运营”，这是对“长期增长”的投资。
当然，这个消息不会使特斯拉投资者感到高兴。如果公司需要向其供应商退还货币以实现盈利能力，那似乎不是一种可持续的商业模式。更不用说一定会让未来的供应商与特斯拉合作。作为一位不参与特斯拉的制造顾问告诉WSJ：“这简直是荒谬的，它只是表明特斯拉现在是绝望的。他们担心自己的盈利能力，但他们不在乎供应商的盈利能力。”
更新：特斯拉发言人在以下声明中伸出了以下声明《华尔街日报》报告：
“谈判是采购过程的标准部分，现在我们在Model 3生产越来越高的位置处于更强的位置，现在是提高我们在这一领域的竞争优势的好时机。We’re focused on reaching a more sustainable long term cost basis, not just finding one-time reductions for this quarter, and that’s good for Tesla, our shareholders, and our suppliers who will also benefit from our increasing production volume and future growth opportunities. We asked fewer than 10 suppliers for a reduction in total capex project spend for long-term projects that began in 2016 but are still not complete, and any changes with these suppliers would improve our future cash flows, but not impact our ability to achieve profitability in Q3. The remainder of our discussions with suppliers are entirely focused on future parts price and design or process changes that will help us lower fundamental costs rather than prior period adjustments of capex projects. This is the right thing to do.”