Tesla Shakeups Keep Coming
By John O'Dell January 11, 2008
Banner on future Tesla sales center in Santa Monica promises twice-delayed electric roadster is coming this spring.
We've been quietly concerned about Tesla Motorcars for a few months now, ever since the electric roadster developer started backing out on promises to let us come up with a video team and do a technical walkaround of the car to show people all the neat stuff that's gone into it.
We figured Tesla was heading for a rocky road and didn't want us around to see what was going on.
Then came word that co-founder Martin Eberhard had been booted out and a new CEO, Ze'ev Drori, recruited from the ranks of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
Since then, Tesla has said that the transmission problems that have caused at least two delays in the roadster's production launch aren't being resolved as quickly as first thought possible,
The company is likely to sell its first cars -- an event now scheduled for this summer -- with sub-par transmissions that will have to be replaced , at no cost to the car owners but at lot of expense to Tesla, when the proper tranny that can handle the electric car's powerful torque is finally developd.
We can see in all it that the basis of an explanation for Eberhard's ouster. Somebody's head has to roll when things don't go as planned.
Now, via Eberhard's new blog, comes word of what appears to be a significant bloodletting at Tesla, with two dozen or more executives, engineers and others quietly let go in recent weeks. Among them, according to a list posted on the blog late Thursday, have been the designer of the roadster's motor, the vice president of the White Star unit (which was formed to design, build and market a $50,000 electric passenger car once the $100,000 roadster was up and running), the vice president of manufacturing, the chief information officer, the human relations and communications directors, and the vehicle development engineer.
That's led to all sorts of speculation about the fate and finances of the company, although it could be as simple as the new guy not wanting to wait for natural attrition to clear the decks so he can bring In his own people.
It also could be that Drori's simply clearing out a hornet's nest of Eberhard supporters who have been blocking changes he wants to make.
Company spokesman Darryl Siry, who was there under Eberhard and has survived the change of regimes, said there are several reasons for the firings -- and they are firings, he Insists, not layoffs. Chief among those reasons, he said, is Drori's insistence that the company employ only the top performers.
"It's about managing performance and rewarding top performers and getting rid of the bottom performers. We're doing this from a position of strength, not weakness," Siry told Green Car Advisor this morning.
"These aren't layoffs. You do those because of a lack of capital and we don't lack capital.," he said. "It's about developing a team that has accountability."
In his comments on the firings, Eberhard wrote that "you maybe can argue that there are a lot of necessary changes as the company has grown…But axing nearly the entire executive staff, letting the world's foremost EV motor engineer go, trimming down the service organization before the job of opening the first service center is done, ripping through the firmware team…all are hard to explain."
We expect that Tesla and Eberhard will continue jousting -- there are hard feeling on both sides.
The tensions aren't likely to end until either the company starts turning out the cars it has been promising and validates the personnel and mission changes being made or gives up and folds its tent.
We sincerely hope that latter doesn't happen. Whatever the problems Drori has with various members of the team Eberhard helped assemble to get things started, the fact remains that Tesla has become something of a public trust.
It is, after all, the little start-up company that almost single-handedly raised from the dead the idea that electric cars can be viable. We want to see It succeed, as do many others.
"What’s most important going forward is that the company rally both its passion and technical expertise, temper it with some humility, and finally bring to market the car that everyone became excited about in the first place," said Chelsea Sexton, executive director of Plug In America and a longtime advocate of electric transportation.
"That ," she said, "will be the true litmus test, which Tesla -- much like other manufacturers planning new electric cars -- has yet to pass.”
The best defense against the rumor and speculation circulating as Drori implements his personnel and operational changes is to be open and honest about what's going on.
After all, the company intentionally created a community of enthusiasts. Now it should recognize its responsibility to that community.
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