Couple things here - one, it's not clear that Tesla is even allowed to provide options to suppliers under their equity plan. Look at the eligibility section in Appendix A to the 2014 proxy statement. I suppose they could take the position that suppliers are "Consultants" but I wouldn't want to make that argument. As a result, they'd have to amend the plan to allow for this. Any amendment to the eligibility section of a shareholder-approved equity plan must be reapproved by shareholders under Code Section 162(m), meaning it would have to wait until the 2017 proxy is out a year from now, unless they call a special meeting of shareholders (they won't).Not the suppliers. The actual teams of people working on Tesla's project at supplier locations. As stated on EC - Musk is meeting them personally. What I have said makes perfect sense. If you can't understand this please don't haze those that can - and would benefit from understandjng this point. It's significant.
Second, paying suppliers in options would likely be received as a HUGELY bearish signal to investors. It would signal that they cannot afford the cash outlay and that the company is in distress - which is the primary concern of non-bullish investors. I suppose this could be mitigated by raising a bunch of cash before doing this but then there would be no strong reason to do the options.
I think paying suppliers in stock options is exceedingly unlikely.