Tesla shares tumbled more than 4% in pre-market trading after a WSJ report that the electric car maker has turned to some suppliers for a refund of previously made payments in what the WSJ headlined as a bid "to turn a profit" but which reading through the article, said was a strategy "essential to Tesla's continued operation", in other words if the cash demand fails, Tesla's future is in jeopardy.

And, as we discussed last night, Tesla was not seeking to merely renegotiate contracts going forward, but in an unprecedented ask, the electric vehicle maker requested supplier return what it called a meaningful amount of money of its payments since 2016, effectively demanding that companies that had booked profits on sales to Tesla revise their books going back some two years ago.

Quoted by Reuters, Morningstar analyst David Whiston said that "automakers often have brutal pricing demands on suppliers for future work, but retroactive rebates is not something we hear much about, and this is troubling for us to hear."

On Twitter, Elon Musk appears to confirm the report saying that "Only costs that actually apply to Q3 & beyond will be counted. It would not be correct to apply historical cost savings to current quarter."