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Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, told staff in an email Friday that the electric car maker plans to cut 10 percent of its salaried workforce.

In the email, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times, Mr Musk said the layoffs would not apply to employees who manufacture cars or batteries or install solar panels, and that the hourly headcount would increase. “Tesla will cut salaried employees by 10 percent as we have overstaffed in many areas,” he said.

Reuters reported the news earlier, citing a different email that Mr. Musk sent only to Tesla executives. The automaker’s share price fell nearly 9 percent on Friday after the publication of this article.

Tesla’s staff has grown significantly as sales have increased, and it has built new factories, including two that opened this year near Berlin and Austin, Texas. The company employed more than 99,000 workers at the end of last year. Just two years ago Tesla had 48,000.

Mr Musk and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this week, Mr. Musk told his employees at rocket company Tesla and SpaceX that they are expected to spend at least 40 hours a week in their offices.

“The more senior you are, the more visible your presence should be,” Mr Musk said in an email to SpaceX employees on Tuesday. “That’s why I spent so much time at the factory that people on the line could see me working for them. If I didn’t do that, SpaceX would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.”

This announcement has plunged Mr. Musk and his companies into a heated debate over the right approach to normalcy in the wake of two chaotic pandemics. It also raised concerns that it could drive away top performers who choose to continue working remotely all the time or for a while.

The new layoffs won’t be the first at Tesla. The automaker also laid off some workers 2017 and 2018.

In recent weeks, investors started to question high share price of the company. The market values ​​the company at more than $728 billion, more than many other major automakers combined. Shares of Tesla fell nearly 40 percent from their highs at the end of last year, citing risks from the company’s increased competition, accusations of racial discrimination and production problems at its Shanghai factory.

Some critics see Mr Musk’s bid to buy Twitter as another distraction that could hurt Tesla. A major concern for some investors is that the automaker’s board is not independent enough from the chief executive to control itself and its impulses.

“From a corporate good governance perspective, Tesla has a lot of red flags,” said Andrew Poreda, a senior analyst specializing in socially responsible investing at Sage Advisory Services, an investment firm in Austin. He told The Times last month. “There is almost no check and balance.”

Mr. Musk’s management style and success – listed as the world’s richest man by Bloomberg and Forbes – earned him fans but made him a lightning rod. Tesla has lost a large number of senior executives in recent years, many of whom have gone to senior jobs at other automakers, tech companies and battery manufacturers.

Recently, Mr. Musk lauded the work ethic in China, where working conditions can be harsh and even abusive, suggesting that workers in the United States are lazy. “They’re not just going to burn the midnight oil. They will burn the 3rd oil at night” In an interview with the Financial Times, he said about Chinese workers:. “So they won’t even abandon a factory type thing. Whereas in America people try to avoid going to work at all.”

Still, some analysts remain bullish on Tesla’s prospects. “In our view, Tesla probably doesn’t need to hire more employees to continue growing, and we think the workforce reduction plan shows Tesla overhired last year,” said Seth Goldstein, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar. said in a note on Friday.