Tesla exec shuffle: Elon Musk appoints himself CEO, lays off staff

The drama never stops at Tesla Motors -- following a morning of feverish rumors, the company has officially announced that it's replacing CEO Ze'ev Drori with board chairman Elon Musk. Tesla says that Drori will remain "active" with the company as a vice chairman of the board, but it looks like it's now more Musk's company than ever before -- and his first order of business is apparently to lay off staff to get the company "cash positive" in the next six to nine months. Other than the closing of the Detroit Tesla office, it's not clear what the layoffs will entail -- Musk say they'll be "modest" -- but hopefully we'll start to see more cars and fewer headlines from the upstart electric car company in the near future.

Read - CNET report
Read - Elon Musk blog post

[wako @ Oct 15th 2008 5:40PM]

Thats news?

[kojo87 @ Oct 15th 2008 5:48PM]

yes it is news. just not very interesting news to you.

[Ridgecity @ Oct 15th 2008 9:46PM]

This guy is probably going to sell the company now that America will start using electric cars. These are shark CEOs and jump the moment is appropriate moment.

[cubicle @ Oct 15th 2008 5:50PM]

Yay, more good news for Detroit.

*sigh*

[Ron @ Oct 15th 2008 5:53PM]

They will be bought very soon. If the american car companies were smart (and have any money left). they would buy them. god only knows that chevy volt is going to be a POS compared to other electric cars.

[cesium @ Oct 15th 2008 6:02PM]

What objective reason do you have for the Volt sucking in comparison to other EVs?

[happy_penguin @ Oct 15th 2008 6:15PM]

Uh... the Volt is going to be a realistically drivable car compared to other electric cars. And it's going to be a helluva lot closer to affordable than any offering Tesla Vapor Motors has.

Tesla can't even build their own car. They had to go to Lotus for that.

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 15th 2008 5:56PM]

Tesla if following the footsteps of the DeLorean. Except the deLorean looked much cooler.

[kojo87 @ Oct 15th 2008 6:03PM]

and they were all time machines!! right?

[happy_penguin @ Oct 15th 2008 6:16PM]

Tesla is going to die.

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 15th 2008 6:23PM]

But before going down, the CEO will be caught up in a drug sting set up by the feds.

[muddyh2o @ Oct 15th 2008 6:00PM]

how cool would it be if someone remade Back to the Future with one of these. After all, bangladeshiluv did say this will follow in the footsteps of the DeLorean...

[bangladeshiluv @ Oct 15th 2008 6:04PM]

Back to the Future the Musical with Zac Efron as Marty & Johnny Depp as Doc.

[zoopthegame @ Oct 15th 2008 6:02PM]

i think i should invest all of my money in the people he lays off.

[tasteslikechicken @ Oct 15th 2008 6:28PM]

Ok, he's taking charge (likely for the VC's that funded Tesla) so he can get the company CASH positive. Tesla needs to be cash positive if they're going to survive. I must confess that I don't much care for Musk's background as my run-ins with people that went to private school and were born with a silver spoon indicate that they lack vision and spend too much on the business and too little on the technology. However, if Tesla is going to grow, they need to get profitable. There are some important differences in how you run a start up till you prove your idea and how you take that start up to profitability (and eventually public). I wish them the best of luck. If we can get the US government to stop pouring money into the huge-failing-decrepit Detroit auto makers I think the US might be able to get back to making the best autos in the world via upstarts like Aptera and Tesla. As institutions age, if they aren't careful, they develop rules to solve problems, those rules develop into a thicker and thicker layer of bureaucracy that eventually kills the institution. It's not that rules are bad, they are usually necessary. It's the build up over time of those rules. They need to be melted off periodically like the ice on the wing of a plane. Because Detroit-auto hasn't done it's maintenance it's time for it to die (and hopefully be reborn like the proverbial phoenix).

[Reader @ Oct 15th 2008 7:10PM]

OH NOEZ. IT'S GOHJI---ERR THE WALL OF TEXT!

[thedesolate1 @ Oct 15th 2008 10:50PM]

Tesla's constant shuffles is shady as fuck but I must agree with you on that. I remember reading that Musk just wants to create capital and drive the company stock up to then sell it and cash out. I wonder if this is true, as well as his poor treating of his employees...

[LKM @ Oct 15th 2008 6:49PM]

As cool as the Tesla is, I do get a hint of satisfaction watching these holier-than-thou Bay Area douchebags self destruct.

[catbeller @ Oct 15th 2008 8:31PM]

It's called a "depression". There is no money to borrow. So they are laying people off and trying to ride it out. They won't.

These seven years of greed and fraud are now going to kill the green startups. Great.

However, the Feds gave the auto companies 25 billion in loans a couple of weeks ago. That's called "socialism for the rich". "Picking the winner." The future will belong to those who already had money. Don't recall who said it, but the primary purpose of capitalism is to ensure that those who have all the money get to keep it.

So we get GM's version of an electric car. Probably built of 75,000 parts, costs 20K in maintenance over it's lifetime, and will rust out in less than seven years. And still uses gasoline.

[thomas @ Oct 15th 2008 8:45PM]

this is in no way a depression. There have been numerous recessions since WWII and every one was preceded by and followed by a period of prosperity.

[jake @ Oct 15th 2008 9:14PM]

It's not like it hasn't happened before. Sigh...

[S @ Oct 15th 2008 10:42PM]

This company and it's idea were doomed from the start. An electric sports car needs to be purpose built from the ground up, not re-engineered from a lotus.

Also, know that electric sports cars have a very limited market, as most automobile enthusiasts are more concerned with the visceral experience of driving a car, like the sounds it makes and the vibrations you get. Electric is just too quiet, and regular sports cars can be made as green as the electric car by switching to hydrogen for the existing engines.

[Ridgecity @ Oct 15th 2008 11:13PM]

Best way to make a profit fast? fired your employees. He will be gone by this time next year.

[Johan S @ Oct 16th 2008 4:02AM]

The moment companies start laying off people I lose respect for the company.

You shouldn't hire people if you're going to lay them off. If you can't think what else to do with human capital you suck as a CEO.