A Tesla Model S is displayed during the London Motor and Tech Show at ExCel on May 16, 2019 in London, England.
John Keeble | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Tesla’s Vice President of Production Peter Hochholdinger, who oversees all of the manufacturing at the company’s Fremont, Calif. factory, is out according to unnamed sources in a report by Electrek.
The departure comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk writes the company must go “all out” to beat a quarterly record in vehicle delivery in an internal memo to all Tesla employees. The electric automaker is trying to beat its previous delivery record from 2018 of 90,700 — a goal analysts are calling ambitious.
“Hitting the 360k-400k unit demand guidance for 2019 is going to be an Everest-like task in our opinion as 350k is likely the line in the sand as street whisper numbers have continued to come down over the past few months,” Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note.
The uncertainty surrounding the delivery numbers is heightened by the fact that Tesla reported a 31% fall in deliveries in the first quarter, raising questions about demand. That uncertainty isn’t helped with the loss of Hochholdinger, an industry veteran from Audi hired who used to handle production of its best selling A4 sedan. Tesla hired him in 2016.
“The departure of Peter is not ideal at this juncture and adds to the executive departures in Fremont which have concerned investors over the past 6 months,” Ives told CNBC.
Musk remains confident about achieving the goals though, in his Tuesday email, he wrote “the reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record, but it will be very close.”
The company’s stock has fallen 34% this year. Production numbers are expected to be released around July 4.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
