Tesla managers have been asked whether each of their employees' positions were critical, stoking layoff fears in the company, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

Tesla sent out a single-line query for each job after canceling some employees' biannual performance reviews, some of the people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Its shares rose 2.7% in premarket trading, They have slumped more than 25% so far this year.

The report comes after CEO Elon Musk warned sales growth would slow this year despite price cuts that have already hurt margins at the world's most valuable automaker and fueled investor concerns about soft demand and Chinese competition.

The electric automaker had 140,473 employees globally as of Dec. 31 last year.

  - Reuters