A Tesla whistleblower has branded Elon Musk "pure evil" and wants to face the tech billionaire in open court. Cristina Balan, a former engineer, lost her job after raising a safety concern regarding an alleged design flaw that could affect the cars' braking. On Thursday, a panel of appeal judges in California reversed a previous decision to dismiss her defamation claim against the electric vehicle company.

She opined on told Times Radio: "I started this lawsuit to prove my innocence and to prove how vindictive this monster is. He is pure evil." Balan was once such an instrumental part of the team that her intials were engraved into batteries in the Model S, but after telling Mr Musk that the floor matts were curling underneath some of the pedals in 2014, she was called into a meeting and told to resign.