Tesla turnover: Production chief reportedly departs ahead of upcoming sales report

With Tesla expected to give a crucial vehicle-delivery report in a matter of days, the electric carmaker reportedly is dealing with the departure of one of its executives responsible for the production lines at its massive plant in Fremont.

Peter Hochholdinger, who had been involved in running Tesla’s vehicle production, has left the company after three years, according to sources cited by Electrek, a blog that follows the electric and autonomous vehicle industries. It is not known when Hochholdinger stepped down from his position or if Tesla has named a successor.

A Tesla spokesperson said the company had no comment on Hochholdinger’s departure, but that overall production at Fremont would continue to be run by vice president of production Bert Bruggemen, who joined the company this past fall.

Hochholdinger was seen as a big hire by Tesla when CEO Elon Musk lured him away from his 22-year career at Audi, where Hochholdinger oversaw the production Audi’s A4, A5 and Q5 vehicles. At the time Hochholdinger left Audi, he was responsible for the production of 400,000 cars a year.

Hochholdinger is the latest in a line of Tesla executives to leave the company over the past year. Earlier this month, Felicia Mayo, one of Tesla’s vice presidents of human relations, stepped down after two years on the job. Over the past 12 months, Tesla has also lost Doug Field, senior vice president of engineering; Dave Morton, chief accounting officer; Gabrielle Toledano, chief people officer; Gilbert Passin, vice president of manufacturing; Jeff Jones, head of global security; and Deepak Ahujah, chief financial officer.

“I think there are two things going on,” said Gene Munster, managing partner with Loup Ventures. “It.continues to show it’s an intense environment at Tesla, and they have a hard time retaining top talent because these are people in high demand.”

At Tesla, production of the Model 3 sedan has become crucial to the company’s future. During the first quarter of this year, Tesla delivered almost 51,000 Model 3 cars, compared to 12,100 deliveries combined of its Model S and Model X cars.

However, Tesla’s total number deliveries during the quarter was well below the almost 91,000 cars it sold in the fourth-quarter of 2018; it also fell short of many Wall Street analysts’ forecasts.

Tesla has said it expects to report second-quarter deliveries of 90,000 to 100,000 cars, and Musk has said the company should deliver 360,000 to 400,000 cars for all of 2019.

Musk added to the vehicle delivery issue when he sent an email about the issue to company employees Tuesday. According to CNBC, which obtained a copy of the email, Musk said, “There is a lot of speculation regarding the vehicle deliveries this quarter. The reality is that we are on track to set an all-time record, but it will be very close.”