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One of Elon Musk’s top lieutenants has left his job at Tesla amid plunging sales and a pivot to autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Omead Afshar, who was promoted to run sales and operations in North America and Europe last year, has left his role, according to two people familiar with the decision. Jenna Ferrua, director of North American human resources, has also departed the company, they said.
Tesla, Afshar and Ferrua did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bloomberg first reported the departures.
Afshar’s departure comes at a difficult time for Tesla as its sales and earnings decline. It has suffered from a lack of new models, increased competition — in particular in China — and a consumer backlash against Musk’s right-wing political activism in Europe and support of President Donald Trump.
Tesla’s worldwide EV deliveries fell 13 per cent in the first quarter, and its net income plunged 71 per cent. That prompted Musk to promise to “allocat[e] far more of my time to Tesla” and reduce the time he spends in Washington. His so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been controversially slashing government jobs and spending.
Musk has since left his government role and publicly clashed with the president.
However, Tesla has so far been unable to reverse the trend, with sales in the UK and Europe declining 28 per cent in May, the fifth month in a row. The EV maker will report global deliver numbers for the second quarter next week, with analysts forecasting another double-digit fall.
Afshar has worked for Tesla since 2017, starting in the office of the CEO, before overseeing the construction of its vast “Giga Texas” manufacturing plant in Austin from 2020.
He has been described as “firefighter” and “executioner” for the world’s richest man, being moved across Musk’s various companies to solve tough problems and conduct mass lay-offs, the Financial Times has previously reported.
In late 2022, he was part of the “transition team” that fired more than 7,500 people at Twitter — now rebranded as X — and was given the nickname “the Elon whisperer” by colleagues because of his ability to read the mood of the mercurial billionaire. Last year, he helped undertake a 10 per cent reduction in Tesla’s workforce, shedding about 14,000 jobs.
It was not clear if Afshar will be reassigned to another part of Musk’s empire after leaving Tesla.
Musk is conducting a broader overhaul of the EV maker, betting its future on autonomous driving powered by artificial intelligence and a humanoid robot called Optimus. Last week, Tesla started a pilot programme of self-driving robotaxis in Austin that it says will eventually lead to owners being able to rent their cars out via a ride hailing app when not in use.
However, the technology is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after multiple crashes in bad conditions such as mist or sun glare. Tesla relies solely on cameras mounted on its vehicles, while rivals like Google’s Waymo driverless taxis use more expensive radar and lidar sensors.