Elon Musk is reportedly taking on tasks for Tesla’s gross sales in North America and Europe amid a management transition.
The CEO goes from “sleeping on Tesla’s manufacturing facility flooring” to now sleeping within the gross sales workplaces.
For years, Tesla was production-constrained and struggled to ramp up manufacturing to satisfy demand.
Round this time, CEO Elon Musk claimed he was “sleeping on the manufacturing facility flooring” to assist with the manufacturing effort.
Tesla’s days of being production-constrained are actually far behind the automaker, which at present operates its factories at about 50% capability as a result of demand issues.
The corporate’s gross sales have been declining, partly as a result of Musk alienating Tesla’s buyer base by means of his involvement in politics and controversial statements on social media.
Tesla blamed its poor efficiency within the first quarter on the Mannequin Y changeover limiting manufacturing, however the firm is about to launch its second quarter supply outcomes, that are anticipated be simply as dangerous as Q1 and Tesla can’t use the manufacturing changeover as an excuse.
We not too long ago discovered that Musk fired Omead Afshar, his former chief of employees, who had been accountable for overseeing Tesla’s operations in North America and Europe.
It seems that Musk is putting the blame for Tesla’s poor gross sales efficiency on Afshar.
Based on a brand new report from Bloomberg, Musk will now personally oversee North American and European gross sales at Tesla following Afshar’s departure from the corporate.
The transfer will add tasks to the CEO, who can be CEO of SpaceX, the defacto chief at X, xAI, and in addition main efforts at The Boring Firm and Neuralink, whereas additionally claiming to be launching a brand new political celebration within the US.
Nevertheless, he’s reportedly not taking all of Afshar’s tasks because the manufacturing in these areas will fall once more on Tom Zhu.
Zhu has lengthy been the chief of Tesla’s operations in China and led the very profitable Gigafactory Shanghai effort.
Gigafactory Shanghai rapidly turned Tesla’s best-performing manufacturing facility and to duplicate the success in Texas, Musk made Zhu answerable for all Gigafactories again in late 2022.
Nevertheless, we reported that Zhu was taking an excellent larger position at Tesla as Musk was busy operating a number of different corporations and spending particularly extra time at his newly acquired Twitter.
We solely reported that Zhu was even made answerable for North American gross sales and have become the de facto head of Tesla’s automotive enterprise – second in command to Musk at Tesla.
Nevertheless, he took a step again from international tasks in 2024 and returned to China.
Now, it appears like Musk was once more be counting on him for international manufacturing, however Zhu has additionally been having points with gross sales in China.
Tesla’s present gross sales on the planet’s largest EV market are down 22,000 models year-to-date in comparison with final 12 months regardless of the brand new Mannequin Y and document reductions.
Electrek’s Take
It appears to be like like Elon is attempting to place the blame on Afshar for Tesla’s demand drawback though he’s clearly the principle cause for them.
He’s broadly unpopular and it’s affecting Tesla since he has made certain to be the face of the corporate for the final decade.
I don’t suppose him being answerable for gross sales goes to assist a lot. Tesla is providing document incentives and its gross sales are dropping regardless of international EV gross sales booming. I wouldn’t shocked if Musk’s strategy is to set unrealistic objectives for the gross sales employees after which apply a ton of stress with threats of extra layoffs.
That’s what Tesla did in China in 2023-2024 and it led to a number of issues, excessive turnover, and staffs reportedly falsying information to adjust to the unrealistic objectives.
If Tesla desires to get previous its demand issues, I have already got the options in my Secret Tesla Grasp Plan.
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