Tesla’s senior VP of engineering is out
At least 50 execs have left Tesla over past couple of years
The man who was once in charge of manufacturing at Tesla has left the company — which is fresh off a production milestone.
Senior Vice President of Engineering Doug Field had been on a leave of absence since last month, when the company was trying to boost
production of its Model 3 sedan. In April, CEO Elon Musk took direct control over Model 3 production after numerous
delays in meeting the company’s self-imposed goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 vehicles a week. At the time, Tesla said Field would focus on vehicle engineering.
“After almost five years at Tesla, Doug Field is moving on,” a spokesman told this publication Tuesday. “We’d like to thank Doug for his hard work over the years and for everything he has done for Tesla.” The company would not comment on whether it planned to name a replacement for Field, who was the most senior engineer at Tesla besides JB Straubel, the company’s co-founder and chief technical officer, and Musk.
Tesla announced Mon-
day that it had finally reached its Model 3 production goal, producing 5,031 of the cars in the past seven days. Its Model 3s are the least expensive cars it has ever made — the lowest promised price is $35,000, although the versions that have been delivered to customers so far have cost about $50,000 or more — and are considered crucial to the company’s success.
Field, a former engineer at Apple and Ford, had been at Tesla since 2013. His departure from the electric carmaker was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which notes that at least 50 vice presidents or higher-ranking executives have left Tesla over the past couple of years. That number includes executives at SolarCity, which Tesla bought in 2016.
Tesla also announced a couple of weeks ago that it was laying off 9 percent of its workforce, or about 3,800 employees, in a move to become profitable.