"HR bloodbath" at Tesla Motors - the free ride is over
 

Via the Mercury News.

Ousted Tesla CEO Martin Eberhard reported yesterday evening on his new blog that employees are being unceremoneously booted from the company at an alarming rate. The blog names 23 people.

Among the booted is Wally Rippell, motor expert and senior designer of the GM EV1.

The company is citing "accountability" and "performance management" as reasons for the terminations.

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:...at-pacific.jpg

Anyone following the saga is aware of the company's claim that the reason for the delayed release of the high profile EV is problems in design/engineering of a robust & reliable 2-speed transmission that can handle the massive torque needed to propel the vehicle to 60 mph in 4 seconds.

The company is saying it's going to deliver the first batch of vehicles with a "temporary" transmission (which will limit acceleration to 60 mph to about 6 seconds), which will be replaced at no charge to owners when the final version is ready.

It's clear from comments on Eberhard's blog from some of the ousted & remaining Tesla employees that the corporate culture/morale has been damaged by the cuts. Excessive managerial torque, perhaps?

With this news, think it's fair to say the bloom is officially off Tesla's rose. The free & glowing media ride is probably over (at least from the geek media).

damn, that sucks.

I guess that means it's gonna take even longer for us to see the "affordable family sedan" that they were supposedly going to bring out after the roadster. :(

As much as I like the roadster, that sedan would really be the game-changer.

I, personally, think it's kind of sad that to get people to consider EVs we have to make them ferraris first so that everyone "aspires" to own them...Why don't people consider things like cars on their own merit instead of letting themselves be brainwashed by the cool factor.

That said, it's a neat car and I hope they get it done.

Bugger... if it goes under for this or related...no one technically killed that electric car... It just kinda committed suicide...

Easy.... Venture Capitol....

No offense Metro for this next part... But lets say the forkenswift was being marketed rather than the roadster.... A VC would get in - say cool... and that could be it.

Now sit that same VC in a car that does 0-60 in 4 seconds... You've got their attention.

I'm personally okay with it... It brings funding to the industry - and establishes a more mainstream feel. Sure, it would be more eco-friendly if people looked beyond the whole go fast thing - but that's not the case right now :/

(None taken.)

That's exactly what Eberhard did when he was seeking the $$$ to set up Tesla: as part of his pitch, he borrowed an AC Propulsion T-zero, and took the moneybags out for a rip.

Though sad for those involved, this could eventually be a good news story. It's often not the ground-breaker who reaps the rewards (Tesla himself is proof of that) but many of these resources will staff other similar ventures and bring with them more knowledge.

Who -

That's been my experience. The first-pass failure allows someone else to pick up the pieces on the cheap and make some money off of it. The same thing happens inside corporations. A new project fails and is reborn using the skill base that it creates.

CarloSW2

Unscrupulous companies often cite 'performance' when they have layoffs in hopes of saving money on severence packages and such. It's suspicious that they have a wave of 'performance issues' especially with the most highly paid employees (implying it's really only about money). It's a bad musician who blames the instrument.

In other news, I hate transmissions. Mitsubishi has the right idea by putting motors in the wheels/hubs.

I wouldn't be surprised if these "irrational" actions will be followed by a buyout that is currently being courted behind the scenes. I've seen this happen inside a startup first hand. Let's see, who might want to acquire such a fledgling company?

I wonder... You know, it'd make the most sense if the interested company already had "Motors" in its name. Save 50% on sign revisions & new business cards. :)

Maybe some bigger fish in the Automotive will buy them out and turn the key off? Better to kill them when they are still young, you know...

...while they're still in the larval stage.

Sad; this is hitting electric cars with a big percentage of a struggling market. Bad news about Canada possible cut-offs, Chevy Volt battery problems, and now Tesla problems. Maybe Ford will try it, (ala Th!nk).

countersTrike

Right now I think mitsubishi is the best of the major manufacturers to look to in terms of putting electric cars on the road. There's should be out this year or early next...I've not got a link handy though, someone else?

SVOboy is right on. Here is a link to a wikipedia piece on what we might expect from Mitsubishi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIEV

Just to let everyone know the gas-powered version (kei only sold in Japan) that the MIEV will be based on won tons of awards here in Japan. The platform is right, and chances are Mitsubishi had plans to eventually make an EV out of it from the get-go.

As for Tesla, they never really interested me as a company. Performance is something that I gave up on a long time ago. For this reason, Aptera is the company that is catching my attention. With the whole fiasco that Tesla is going through, perhaps Aptera will end up being the better company to place bets on. Their attitude just seems to be better too. They are setting out to radically change cars, whereas Tesla was just trying to change peoples' thinking about electric cars.

Did you ever hear about that little prefecture south of tokyo that made an EV mandate last summer? Do you think that had anything to do with the Mitsubishi thing or was it separate stuffs?

I like to think of the Aptera as one of the highest performing machines out there. I know what you're saying though. However it bites that "performance" is equated solely with speed & acceleration.

PS - welcome to the site, btw. :D

Oh man... Tesla Problems!!!!
Grrrrr..... why must progress always fight an uphill battle?
Where are the rich and powerful when big change is needed.
Bill gates should quit naming his company after his weenie and do something good with his money besides a few dollar donations to charity.
Next thing you know Virgin Galactic will be canceled.

I'm still trying to figure out why cars MUST go 0-60 in 4 seconds in order for Tesla to sell them. They could learn a lot from the EV1.

I'm sorry..... Just the first time I read that - I was confused because I was thinking about food :p

I had never heard anything in relation to that. Not sure which prefecture it is that you are talking about, but if it it is close to Tokyo then there might be a link... being that Mitsubishi Motors is located in Tokyo.

The Japanese are excellent at being consumers. The whole shaken system adds to this. They really love having the latest and greatest. It is less a race with the Joneses than America, but this mentality does definitely exist. The whole eco boom is hitting us here as well. sho ene also is quite popular these days. Japanese are early adopters, and if something catches on, it REALLY catches on... though fads fade fast. Virtually overnight.

Anyways, there was a point to this post. There was a series of commercials about the new Mitsubishi electric car. Their biggest claim in the commercial, if I remember correctly, was that it was an emissions-free vehicle. This to me is very dishonest, as the electricity has to come from somewhere. Japan does have nuclear, but the recent problem we had with spillage shows that no energy is perfect.

I keep going off on tangents, so I will end my post here. Mitsubishi is a company to watch if you are interested in an electric vehicle.

trebuchet03 -

Oh yeah, I like CRUNCHY (bad for you) won tons. I don't really dig the gooey (good for you?) won tons.

CarloSW2

Hi,

This may be a new round of layoffs, or it might be an echo chamber?

That's a nasty prognosis.

I wonder if it's just an echo though, of the closing of the Detroit office & layoff of staff.

I find it hard to believe that Musk would let the company fold after stepping into the CEO position. Pretty deep pockets.

Humm... 1200 deposits at $5K each = $6 million, $9 million in the bank. What exactly is the problem? Assuming that they're making at least something above cost of materials & labor on each car, of course. So they pull in their horns a bit on new development until the economy improves.

Aptera deposits are only $500, not $5000.

In September Aptera secured $24M in venture capital for production startup costs, having already blown through $17M in product development money. This is why founder Steve Fambro was demoted; so that investors had a "money" man in charge and not a starry-eyed dreamer.

Just as a point of reference, so far Tesla has gone through almost $140M in venture capital. At least they've actually delivered some cars to customers.

I just can't bring myself to trust anything I hear about Tesla anymore... I drove past the Rochester Hills office yesterday... and.... well....

The parking lot was full. One of the shipping/receiving doors was open, and there was loads of stuff inside... they even still have plants next to the lobby doors... It looked like a regular, bustling, business-place.

On top of that, the building is tiny to begin with. They also share the building with another company... and they share the parking lot, which would only hold about 50 cars... MAYBE. There is no way 100 people work there, unless they work in shifts and in tiny cubicles.

Your point? The Aptera's supposed to be selling at around $30K instead of $100K, too.

I'll take issue with that "demoted". I don't pretend to know anything about Aptera's internal management decisions, but I've worked for a few startups. They're generally founded by engineers or scientists, people who know the technology, in other words. In the beginning, they often find themselves wearing management hats too, and usually don't do this very well. (Which is not surprising, IMHO: would anyone expect a manager to do the engineering?) Once the company grows to a certain point, it makes sense to hire real management types to do the management, and let the engineers go back to engineering.

It's a sad commentary on this society's values that going back to engineering should be considered some sort of demotion. Management is where engineers go when they can't hack the engineering any longer.

I wasn't trying to make any kind of point. I just pointed out your error.

As far Fambro being "demoted", I was simply using the language used in the artticles reporting on the situation. You can call it anything you want.

My error? Sorry, but the discussion was about the TESLA, where the (according to the article) deposits ranged between $4k and $6K. I took $5K as an average to get a ballpark figure: how is that an error?

So what is your point in bringing in figures for the Aptera to a discussion of the Tesla?

Lmao, Bill Gates AKA, "Microsofty"

I feel same way about this "problem" more people sitting on their billions could promote a lot of change, quickly.

They could learn from the EV1 that is for sure. Aim for a larger audience, not just Cali and it's actors offer it to everyone. I would be totally happy with an EV1.

My mistake. I had several windows open. Mea culpa.

I got to see a Tesla Roadster in person this summer, see it, touch it, sit in it, and talked with the sales guy for at least an hour.

It is a great car, but the transmission was one of the first things I asked about.

Here is video of the actual car I was chilling out with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mtaVj09x20

It had a stick shifter that had 1,2 & R on it. I asked about the transmission, and was told selecting either 1 or 2 both put it into the only (single) gear that it had.

This car has really got people talking about electric cars in a way that Forkenswifts and Electro-Metros haven't.

We DO need an electric Model-T, an affordable, everyman's electric car.
Part of my rant against the Auto X-Prize rules a while back was about how everyone wants crazy fast 0-60 speeds, unlimited range, and zero emissions.

The single-speed transmission in Tesla Roadster would be PERFECT for a great, no-nonsense electric car!

Perfectly worded right there, a People's electric. Not a rocket ship, but that has to come first to boost the want department, it is a shame.

Or just better to do away with it all-together, and lose the torque loss, excess weight and cost. :thumbup:

(hub motors FTW)

$40M should help...