Tesla plans 7 pct staff cut, says road ahead very difficult

Electric car and solar panel maker Tesla said Friday it plans to cut its staff by about 7 percent."The road ahead is very difficult," the company's founder and CEO Elon Musk said in an email to employees posted on the company's website.He said Tesla Inc. hopes to post a "tiny profit" in the current quarter but that after expanding its workforce by 30 percent last year, it cannot support that size of staff.Musk said in a tweet in October that Tesla had 45,000 employees. A 7 percent cut would invo