Tesla CEO Elon Musk has fired the automaker's vice president of manufacturing and operations Omead Fashar, Forbes reports, amid plummeting sales and public backlash against the company.
Fashar was one of Musk's closest confidants and a powerful executive at the company, according to Bloomberg, which reported that Fashar had departed but didn't say that Musk was behind the personnel change. The exact reason for his departure isn't clear, although one can make an educated guess based on the broader turmoil at Tesla.
Fashar was in charge of a team of more than a half-dozen high level employees, CNBC noted while corroborating that Musk was behind the sacking. He joined Tesla in 2017 as an engineer, and was promoted to his position last October to oversee sales and manufacturing in North America and Europe — the two markets where consumer backlash in response to Musk's association with the Trump administration has been the hardest felt.
His firing follows the departure of another Tesla bigwig, Milan Kovac, who was in charge of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot program before stepping down earlier this month. Musk thanked Kovac for his time at the company, but so far has not commented on Fashar's termination. Bloomberg reported that Jenna Ferrua, a human resources director for North America, also left Tesla.
Fashar walked the plank of what might be a sinking ship. Tesla shares are down by 19 percent this year, with sales tumbling worldwide. It sold 15 percent fewer cars in China last month than it did last year, with the trend looking even grimmer in Europe, where sales have now plummeted for five straight months — despite EV registrations on the continent being up overall. In the US, sales dropped nine percent in the first three months of the year. That period saw Tesla's total sales fall by 13 percent, the largest drop in the company's history.
Overseas, Chinese EV companies have stepped in to fill the void, with BYD overtaking Tesla in terms of sales and revenue.
Public outcry against Tesla, which has included mass protests, boycotts, and acts of vandalism that target its dealerships and cars, has driven the decline. It became difficult to separate Musk's image from his automaker's as he endorsed Donald Trump for president, threw some $300 million towards funding Trump's campaign, and led the Department of Government Efficiency to gut the federal government.
The automaker is also saddled with an aging lineup, and its attempt to spice things up with a newly facelifted Model Y — and desperate financing deals — have been a dud. The controversial Cybertruck, which is on its eighth recall and has come to embody the public's distaste for Musk, has been such a disaster that thousands of the boldly styled pickups are rotting in dealership lots, with only 7,100 sold in the US over the first quarter.
This is all bubbling in the background as Musk has boldly pivoted Tesla towards operating a robotaxi service, which launched unceremoniously in Austin, Texas, last week, with human "safety monitors" conspicuously placed in the front passenger seats.
Despite just a dozen or so of the self-driving Teslas in operation — and at that limited to a small "geofenced" area where driving conditions are most ideal — the robotaxis have already drawn the attention of federal regulators for a string of incidents in which they seemingly violated traffic laws.
More on Tesla: Tesla Stock in Tailspin After Error-Plagued Robotaxi Debut
Share This Article