Tesla Inc on Wednesday announced the departure of Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja, the latest senior executive to leave the company as it strives to ramp up electric car production and reach long-term profitability.





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Here is a list of executive departures from Tesla since 2016:



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2019</h3>



Jan. 30 &#8211; Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja may continue to serve as a senior adviser to Tesla, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in a post earnings call.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2018</h3>



Nov. 27 &#8211; Jeff Jones, head of global security, is no longer working with Tesla Inc after just 11 months on the job, CNBC reported, citing one current and one former employee.



Oct. 17 &#8211; Gilbert Passin, vice president of manufacturing, has left, according to a Business Insider report. 



Sept. 20 &#8211; Liam O&#8217;Connor, vice president of global supply management resigned from the company, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. 12- Justin McAnear, vice president of worldwide finance and operation, said he would be leaving Tesla to take a CFO role at another company.



Sept. 7 &#8211; Gabrielle Toledano, chief people officer at Tesla, leaves the company. 



Sept. 4 &#8211; Dave Morton, chief accounting officer at Tesla, resigns just a month after starting work, according to a company filing. 



July &#8211; Ganesh Srivats, vice president at Tesla leaves company to become chief executive officer at Moda Operandi Inc 



July &#8211; Doug Field, senior vice president of engineering, stepped down after five years with the electric carmaker.



June- Karim Bousta, vice-president of worldwide service and customer experience, left the company, automotive news website Electrek reported.



May- Cal Lankton stepped down as senior vice president of energy operations and will be replaced by Sanjay Shah from Amazon.com Inc, according to a Bloomberg report. 



May &#8211; Matthew Schwall, director of field performance engineering, exits to join Alphabet Inc&#8217;s self-driving unit, Waymo.



April &#8211; Georg Ell, director of Tesla&#8217;s Western Europe operations, leaves to head UK-based Smoothwall. 



March &#8211; Chief Accounting Officer Eric Branderiz exits after joining in October 2016.



March &#8211; Susan Repo, corporate treasurer and vice president of finance, exits to become chief financial officer at another company. 



February &#8211; Jon McNeill, president of global sales and services, leaves to join ride-hailing company Lyft as chief operating officer. 



January &#8211; Jason Mendez, director of manufacturing engineering, leaves after more than 12 years. 



January &#8211; Will McColl, manager of equipment engineering, leaves after seven years. 



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2017</h3>



December &#8211; Erik Fogelberg, vice president of commercial sales, America, Tesla Energy left the company after 11 months. He joined as vice president of global sales for NEC Energy Solutions last month.



November &#8211; Jon Wagner, director of battery engineering, who joined in 2013 exits to launch a battery and powertrain startup in California.



September &#8211; Diarmuid O&#8217;Connell, vice president of business development, departs.



August &#8211; Marco Krapels, vice president of international expansion, solar &amp; battery storage, left the company after six months and currently serves as the founder and chief executive officer of Micropower-Comerc, according to his LinkedIn profile. 



August &#8211; Kurt Kelty, director of battery technology and then one of the longest serving company executives, exits. He led negotiations with Panasonic on the company&#8217;s gigafactory in Nevada.



July &#8211; SolarCity co-founder Peter Rive leaves the company, eight months after Tesla bought the biggest U.S. residential solar panel maker.



June &#8211; Chris Lattner, vice president of autopilot leaves within six months of joining.



June &#8211; SolarCity founder Lyndon Rive leaves the electric vehicle maker. 



May &#8211; Arnnon Geshuri, who led HR at Tesla for more than eight years, departs.



Apple posts revenue drop but optimistic on China



April &#8211; Chief Financial Officer Jason Wheeler leaves to pursue public policy projects; replaced by Deepak Ahuja, who served as CFO before Wheeler. 



March &#8211; Mark Lipscomb, vice president of human resources, departs to join streaming service provider Netflix.



March &#8211; Satish Jeyachandran, director of hardware engineering, leaves after seven years with the company; later joins Waymo. 



March &#8211; David Nister, vice president of autopilot vision, departs to join chipmaker Nvidia.



March &#8211; Klaus Grohmann ousted after a clash with CEO Elon Musk over the strategy at Grohmann&#8217;s firm, which Tesla had acquired in November. Grohmann Engineering helped companies design highly automated factories. 



January &#8211; JLM Energy says Ardes Johnson, who worked as director of sales at Tesla Energy, joins as a vice president. 



January &#8211; Sterling Anderson, head of Tesla&#8217;s autopilot system, leaves company. Tesla sued him for trying to recruit company engineers for his new venture while still with Tesla, and in April withdrew the lawsuit after a settlement.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">2016</h3>



December &#8211; Mateo Jaramillo, vice president of Tesla Energy, leaves after seven years.



July &#8211; Rich Heley, vice president of product technology, departs to join Facebook.



May &#8211; Josh Ensign, vice president of manufacturing, leaves; joins startup Proterra as chief operating officer. 



May &#8211; Greg Reichow, vice president of production, leaves as the company prepares to launch Model 3, and sharply ramp up production.



April &#8211; James Chen, vice president of regulatory affairs and deputy general counsel, leaves to join rival Faraday Future. 



March &#8211; Ricardo Reyes, vice president of global communications, leaves. <a href="https://bloom.bg/2ImDzUY">b</a>



March &#8211; Michael Zanoni, vice president of finance and worldwide controller, departs to join Amazon. 



January &#8211; Chief Information Officer Jay Vijayan leaves Tesla to create his own startup. -Reuters



&#8211;Sanjana Shivdas and Arjun Panchadar

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Factbox: Tesla executive departures since 2016

Tesla Inc’s chief financial officer will leave the company as the automaker on Wednesday promised cheaper Model 3 sedans, the launch of Chinese production this year and profits in every quarter in 2019. 



The departure of Deepak Ahuja as well as missing Wall Street profit targets for the end of 2018, sent Tesla shares down nearly 6 percent after hours. Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla’s vice president of finance, will replace Ahuja, who is about 56 years old.



Chief Executive Elon Musk touted strong demand for the Model 3, as the company begins to ship the car to Europe and Asia from its Fremont, California factory. But he acknowledged it was paramount to cut costs to lower the price of the vehicle for a wider customer base.



“We have to be relentless about costs in order to make affordable cars and not go bankrupt,” said Musk on a conference call with analysts.



While the company expressed optimism that it could post a profit in the first quarter despite fewer deliveries of its flagship S and X vehicles, Tesla warned of challenges such as logistics and global deliveries of its new Model 3.



Tesla said plans to lower the price of the Model 3 were contingent on quickly building its factory in China. It hopes to produce 500,000 vehicles a year there by the last quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2020, a goal it originally expected to meet in 2018.



To start, the Shanghai factory will build 3,000 Model 3s per week, while production at Tesla’s Fremont plant will rise to 7,000 Model 3s per week by year’s end, the company estimated.



“Bottom line is we need the Shanghai factory to achieve that 10,000 rate and have the cars be affordable,” Musk told analysts. “The demand for Model 3 is insanely high. The inhibitor is affordability.”



Musk announced a 7 percent workforce reduction earlier this month, saying it was crucial to cut costs to roll out a lower-priced, yet still profitable, Model 3.



The cheapest today is priced at $44,000. Musk gave a “rough guess” that Tesla would begin building its originally promised $35,000 version around the middle of this year.



Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin called Tesla’s results “somewhat weak, but largely as expected.”



“We think people have been too bullish about Tesla showing earnings power, and sustained positive cash from operations,” he said.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">MORE CASH</h4>



Investors have wondered whether Tesla, which has never posted an annual profit, will seek more capital to fund a planned Model Y SUV, the building of factories in China and Europe, and the expansion of Tesla’s existing Nevada battery plant, the Gigafactory.Slideshow&nbsp;(3 Images)



Tesla said it ended the quarter with $4.3 billion in cash and said it could pay a $920 million convertible bond maturing in March.



“Tesla has a fantastic brand, and by all accounts a fantastic product, but we’re worried it’s also fantastically expensive,” said Nicholas Hyett, Equity Analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “2019 could prove a make-or-break year.”



The winding down of a U.S. tax subsidy this year will make all Tesla cars more expensive and could hurt sales.



Tesla said it expected lower S and X deliveries in the first quarter, given a “pull-forward in demand” in 2018 for those vehicles when the full subsidy was still available. Tesla recognizes revenue once a vehicle is delivered.



Apple posts revenue drop but optimistic on China



In the fourth quarter, customer deposits decreased by $113 million from the prior quarter to $793 million. Tesla said it was working through its Model 3 backlog without clarifying further.



Asked about Model 3 reservations, Ahuja said that number was “not relevant.” Tesla last disclosed in May that net Model 3 reservations &#8211; accounting for new orders and cancellations &#8211; exceeded 450,000.



The company made a net profit of $139.5 million in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a $311.5 million in the third quarter, when it benefited from regulatory credits. 



Excluding items, Tesla earned $1.93 per share, missing expectations of $2.20 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.



Tesla’s total revenue rose 5.9 percent to $7.23 billion, beating the analyst average estimate of $7.08 billion. -Reuters



-Sonam Rai in Bengaluru and Alexandria Sage

Tag: Deepak Ahuja

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Factbox: Tesla executive departures since 2016

Tesla CFO Leaves as Automaker Promises Profits and Cheaper Cars