After maintaining stability for several years, Tesla's executive team is entering a period of rapid change. The executives who have made outstanding contributions to Tesla have left in batches in the short term.
According to incomplete statistics from Interface News, since Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced global layoffs on April 15th, 10 executives have announced their resignations in just one month.
The latest one is Zhu Renjie, the Manufacturing Engineering Director of Tesla's Texas Superfactory. The engineer responsible for Cybertruck's listing and capacity ramp up announced on Monday that he will end his 5-year career in China and the United States. When Zhu Renjie joined Tesla in 2019, he led the formation of the Shanghai Superfactory body manufacturing team.
Zhu Renjie's resignation coincides with Tesla's new round of layoffs. On the same day, Tesla issued a notice to relevant US government agencies stating that Tesla plans to lay off an additional 601 employees in California. Tesla announced last month that it will lay off 6020 employees in California and Texas.
Drawing: Interface News/He Miao
Someone needs to take responsibility for Tesla's declining performance, but that won't be Musk. Tesla's revenue in the first quarter of this year was $21.301 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 9%, lower than analysts' estimate of $22.31 billion. This is Tesla's first quarterly revenue decline in nearly four years, and the largest decline since 2012.
Musk refocused power through continuous changes in executives, and his dispersed focus of work returned to Tesla. One criticism of Musk over the past year has been that he only worked part-time as Tesla CEO.
Drew Baglino, Senior Vice President of Energy and Power Systems, one of Tesla's three core executives, was the first significant executive to resign after Tesla announced a 10% global layoff. He has served Tesla for over 18 years, responsible for areas such as 4680 batteries, motors, and drive units, and has had a profound impact on the company's technology strategy and product development.
The 4680 battery is one of Tesla's key research and development projects in the past four years, and it is also the core of its efforts to reduce manufacturing costs. However, as of March this year, the annual production capacity of 4680 batteries is only enough to assemble 60000 Cyberracks, and the performance and cost performance are not satisfactory.
According to financial media LatePost, citing Tesla engineers, during the development process of the 4680, Musk believed that a usable battery should be made first before continuing iteration. However, Bagrino insisted on breaking through the dry positive electrode technology process, rather than optimizing manufacturing efficiency in the transition plan.
In April of this year, Musk had an undisclosed meeting with Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of CATL, during a brief visit to China that lasted less than 24 hours. A reasonable guess is that Tesla may consider shifting from developing its own batteries to purchasing products from more suppliers.
Rohan Patel, Vice President of Public Policy and Business Development, left Tesla on the same day as Baglio after eight years of service. It is reported that the Tesla public policy team led by him will also be disbanded. Interface News learned that some employees of Tesla China's public relations team have also resigned.
A person close to Tesla revealed to Interface News that Musk is not satisfied with the effectiveness of the layoff actions that began in April and has increased the scope and intensity of the layoffs.
At the end of April, Musk fired the entire supercharging team, including the highest ranking female executive Rebecca Tinucci. Daniel Ho, the new car project leader, also resigned on the same morning. He served as the project manager for the development of Model S, Model 3, and Y, and later was responsible for all new cars.
Musk wrote in an email addressed to all employees, "I hope these actions clearly demonstrate that we need to remain absolutely firm in terms of employee numbers and cost reduction. Although some executives are taking this issue seriously, most have not yet done so."
Tesla's personnel turmoil has caused employee dissatisfaction. "A great company is made up of great employees and great products, which can only be achieved when employees are thriving. The recent layoffs have shaken the company and its morale, causing this harmony to lose balance and making it difficult to see long-term development," said Rich Otto, the company's product launch manager, in a resignation post
The fierce layoff action initiated by this global leader in the new energy vehicle industry has led to speculation from the outside world whether the order data received internally has reached an extremely poor level. The last time Tesla made a series of cost cuts and personnel changes was when it was on the brink of bankruptcy in 2019, and currently the company still has $4.4 billion in free cash flow.
Musk has also brought back Zhu Xiaotong, Senior Vice President responsible for global manufacturing and sales in the European and American markets, to China to stimulate the declining sales situation. The above-mentioned insiders confirmed this news to Interface News.
Senior automotive industry analyst Mei Songlin commented to Interface News that this is the best measure that Musk can currently make for sales performance in the China region.
"Zhu Xiaotong's years of work experience in China have given him a clear understanding of the needs of Chinese consumers, and his two years of development in the United States have also helped him understand what kind of technical support the US headquarters can provide to the Chinese region. At least in terms of communication between the Chinese and American teams, he can maintain efficient consistency."
Li Yanwei, an expert committee member of the China Automobile Circulation Association, is not optimistic about Zhu Xiaotong's return. The past success of this sales executive was partly based on the explosive demand in the Chinese new energy vehicle market, and in the current context of fierce competition and overall slowdown in growth, it is difficult to compete against cycles solely through marketing methods. Currently, China is Tesla's sales and production center, rather than a global technology center.
Another potential sales growth pole for Tesla is the implementation of the fully automated driving software FSD in China. During Musk's visit to China, Tesla reached a cooperation agreement with regulatory agencies and Baidu, granting him a map license to collect data on public roads in China.
The Interface News reporter experienced the FSD V12.4 version on site in the United States and found that Tesla's pure visual solution can accurately identify pedestrians and changes in traffic lights on the road, and respond to sudden starting vehicles, with smooth and comfortable braking. However, the overall driving speed of vehicles with Autopilot enabled is slower and requires manual control of the steering wheel.
According to Gary Black, a well-known Tesla investor and future fund management partner, data from credit card data provider YipitDate shows that only 2% of Tesla American car owners who receive a one month free trial of FSD choose to subscribe to the service after the trial period ends. Musk denied this data on social media.