In face of criticism, Musk refuses to change work style

Tesla chief tweets response to accusations from Uber Technologies board member Arianna Huffington

Elon Musk says he has had the most difficult time of his career. Bloomberg

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, responding to Uber Technologies board member Arianna Huffington urging him to change the way he works, ruled out taking a different approach.

An open letter from Ms Huffington to Mr Musk accused him of "demonstrating a wildly outdated, anti-scientific and horribly inefficient way of using human energy", adding in a tweet that the Tesla founder should change the way he works. It follows an interview with the New York Times last week, in which Musk said he sacrificed family milestones in the race to meet Tesla production targets.

Still, the Tesla CEO responded to the letter with a tweet in which he said that Ford and Tesla are the only two American car companies to avoid bankruptcy.

“I just got home from the factory,” Mr Musk wrote at 2:32am Pacific time on Sunday. “You think this is an option. It is not.”

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Tesla shares plunged 8.9 per cent on Friday after the interview with the New York Times in which he described the past 12 months as "the most difficult and painful year of my career". References to use of the sedative Ambien and driving while tweeting are fuelling calls for Tesla's board to step up its oversight of the company's CEO and largest shareholder.

Mr Musk sparked controversy by tweeting on August 7 that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. He later said that meeting with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund had given him confidence to announce the news. The company later received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission over the tweet.