As Tesla sales fall, Elon Musk fires top manufacturing executive

[midian182]

What just happened? What is a CEO to do when a company's sales continue to fall? If you're Elon Musk, the answer is to fire your vice president of manufacturing and operations in North America and Europe. Omead Afshar was promoted to the role in 2024, having joined the company in 2017 and spending years working in "the office of the CEO."

After Bloomberg reported that Afshar had left the EV giant, Forbes wrote that he had been fired by Musk. The billionaire had previously praised Afshar for leading construction of the Texas gigafactory.

Afshar's X profile still links him to Tesla. His most recent posts, made a few days ago, are about the "historic" launch of the Tesla robotaxis.

In only a couple days of riding… https://t.co/bprXntmrdy

– Omead Afshar (@omead) June 24, 2025

Afshar was the subject of an internal probe in 2022 over allegations that he was involved in a plan to purchase a special kind of material for a Tesla's secret Project 42, which called for a glass structure Musk wanted in the Austin, Texas, area.

Following the probe, Afshar had stints at SpaceX and reportedly at X before returning to Tesla. Musk gave him the VP role at the company in late 2024.

Tesla has struggled like never before in recent years. Selling fewer cars in 2024 than in 2023 marked its first annual fall in more than a decade. In Europe, sales have dropped for a fifth consecutive month; US sales are also down this year; and Tesla's top market of China saw sales decline 15% in May.

Tesla's year-to-date share price

Musk might be blaming the wrong person for Tesla's failing fortunes. It's no secret that his political actions and (former) closeness to Donald Trump impacted the company's sales, especially in Europe. There have been several protests against the auto giant, including a Tesla dealership in Rome being set on fire on March 31, destroying 17 cars.

Musk's brief, very public falling out with Trump earlier this month didn't do his companies any favors. The president threatened to terminate Musk's governmental subsidies and contracts, crashing Tesla's share price by 14% and wiping around $152 billion off its valuation.

Earlier this month, Milan Kovac, who had been head of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot team, left the company. Bloomberg News also reported that Jenna Ferrua, Tesla's director of HR for North America, is no longer with the firm either.

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As Tesla sales fall, Elon Musk fires top manufacturing executive

 

[Squid Surprise]

Well, giant empires tend to crash spectacularly… here it comes?

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, the only person fElon has to blame is himself for Tesla's tanking sales. Of course, his ego is too large for him to even consider that he is the source of his own problems. Therefore, he had to fire this guy and pretend he found an answer to Tesla's tanking sales.

 

[seeprime]

Musk shows support Trump. Sales tank worldwide. Musk fires manufacturing instead of himself. Makes sense.

 

[mcnabney]

He should fire the person responsible. Himself.

 

[Trapped Nowhere]

How is this possible with the president and catturd promoting his brand?

 

[New Day]

Of course, his ego is too large for him to even consider that he is the source of his own problems.

Ewww....going into that kind of mind hurts mine! Of course, **** over my whole life haunts me daily, so I can't ignore things.

 

[p51d007]

Other than the cheap Chinese EV's, for the most part, I think (at least in the USA) most than wanted an EV, already have them.
I see stories about the declining sales of EV's in the USA. And I've read rumors that some U.S. manufacturers are cutting back on EV production.
In smaller countries or just cities and towns, EV's might be great. But out in "flyover" country where there could be miles between towns, the charging network hasn't expanded enough.
Hybrids are better.

 

[BlackyNoir]

I find it kind of disgusting that US press keep calling a (well, two) nazi sieg heil salutes during POTUS inauguration as a "political action", or sometimes even worse as a "political controversy".

What's next? Lynching black people is a "political action supporting the proud cultural history of the US South?". What the frick

Tesla cars are swasticars. We don't want them, not in our garages nor in our streets or roads. We loath their owners. Nothing to do with any VP. Everything to do with years of Musk being publicly more and more radicalized, including things that would be extremely illegal here on our side of the pond.

 

[koblongata]

When it touches politics, Techspot is no exception, kind of sad really

 

[toooooot]

Other than the cheap Chinese EV's, for the most part, I think (at least in the USA) most than wanted an EV, already have them.
I see stories about the declining sales of EV's in the USA. And I've read rumors that some U.S. manufacturers are cutting back on EV production.
In smaller countries or just cities and towns, EV's might be great. But out in "flyover" country where there could be miles between towns, the charging network hasn't expanded enough.
Hybrids are better.

I swear, I have never seen more Teslas on the road than this last year.
But yeah, the demand has been satisfied. They need to make the next big step. I mean inexpensive EVs that have batteries guaranteed to last 15 years, and range at least 300 miles. There are things that can attract a lot more new buyers. But they are nowhere near the reach of ordinary people.
Perhaps, the government should help EV makers more. After all, Chinese government is all in on this. I do not know how much they give to their EV makers, but I do not doubt that it is billions upon billions. And that in addition to already favorable conditions such as all of the manufacturing placed in China.
We need to decide if we want to let China conquer the world with their EVs, or join the fight.

 

[WhiteLeaff]

Tesla would get a huge sales boost if it could fulfill its original promise of a sub-$25k price target for the Model 2.

 

[bviktor]

Yes, Elon, it's clearly this random executive, or Trump, or whatever... definitely not your products being stalled for like 5 years already. Actually, more like 8. The Model Y is literally a blown up Model 3. Zero innovation since then. The current Model S "refresh" is a friggin' joke especially.

You have a big *** sedan, and a big *** SUV, and that's it. And this has been the case for half a decade now. The world kept shouting Tesla needs a cheap small car, and what does this clown do? Release the US-only Cybertruck. Without paint, instead comes with rust stains, and parts that randomly fall off while driving. Also unable to do most offroad stunts. GG.

It was easy to be number 1 while you had ZERO competition. But now all the manufacturers come out with new models day by day. Kia EV3, VW ID.7, BMW iX3 (NK), Mercedes CLA, ...

Unfortunately Tesla Energy is booming, so Musk most definitely won't learn his lessons.

 

[DrSuess]

Tesla would get a huge sales boost if it could fulfill its original promise of a sub-$25k price target for the Model 2.

Its too late for that. After seeing the build issues with the CyberTruck a sub-$25k price target would produce a vehicle held together with duct tape.

 

[Liranan]

EV's are nonsensical toys. New ones are constantly touted as having 1500KM range and then they get turned on and the real range is 250, with 4 hour recharge time. Every taxi driver I've met complains that they have to recharge their car twice a day, causing serious delays and lost earnings. Some of them have switched back to petrol due to range and reliability.

Also they have no resale value whatsoever. A 20 thousand USD EV goes for 2500 at the most after two years and most second hand dealers refuse to buy them as they can't sell them on. And then there's their awful reliability, yesterday I saw yet another brand new one being towed.

New and improved technology, what a scam.

 

[scavengerspc]

IMO, the only person fElon has to blame is himself for Tesla's tanking sales. Of course, his ego is too large for him to even consider that he is the source of his own problems. Therefore, he had to fire this guy and pretend he found an answer to Tesla's tanking sales.

He definitely learned at least one thing from tRUMP.

 

[3ogdy]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/23/europe/elon-musk-europe-politics-x-disinformation-gbr-cmd-intl

After messing around with Europe and showing support for radical parties that aim to break the EU, he wonders why Europeans think Musk is the main reason we don't buy Teslas. He is a scumbag and his business won't get my money.
We've seen enough of him while he was in the American government. Tesla cannot dictate politics in the EU.

Search results for "Musk on Europe", if any European needed reasons to boycott him and his company.

 

[netman]

"Musk might be blaming the wrong person for Tesla's failing fortunes. It's no secret that his political actions and (former) closeness to Donald Trump impacted the company's sales, especially in Europe. There have been several protests against the auto giant, including a Tesla dealership in Rome being set on fire on March 31, destroying 17 cars."

This is what happens when Musketeer chew more than he can swallow...!

 

[Tantor]

"Musk might be blaming the wrong person for Tesla's failing fortunes. It's no secret that his political actions and (former) closeness to Donald Trump impacted the company's sales, especially in Europe. There have been several protests against the auto giant, including a Tesla dealership in Rome being set on fire on March 31, destroying 17 cars."

This is what happens when Musketeer chew more than he can swallow...!

LOL - The Leftist mind amazes me. They forget that roughly 70% of Teslas are owned by fellow Leftists. So instead of pushing to get Musk out of Tesla, they decide to HURT the little old ladies that innocently bought Teslas. Give it to them GOOD and HARD. Make those old bags regret the day they dared to buy something from Musk. They key the cars of fellow Leftists. They musk-Shame them. Burn it all down! And all the time they're hurting their fellow Leftists.

I'm reminded of Emperor Palpatine: "Good! Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny..."

You don't see similar group behavior from conservatives. Sure, conservatives were upset when Budweiser, Harley, Jaguar, and even the Olympics went woke. They quietly quit drinking Bud and sold their Harleys, but they didn't burn the factories down. They hated Obama but they didn't try to impeach him twice and assassinate him twice. They didn't burn down hundreds of buildings, kill 60 people, maim hundreds and cause over $2 billion damage like the Left did during the Floyd riots.

Yes, conservatives have a dark side, which can be just as bad. But public violence is not their thing.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Yes, conservatives have a dark side, which can be just as bad. But public violence is not their thing.

I seem to remember some sort of thing when Trump lost his first presidency election... that wasn't "leftists" storming capitol hill...

 

[GoldenGoat]

I would never buy a cyber truck, politics aside. I don’t think it can haul or tow anything, so it’s not really even a truck. It’s an abomination.

 

[mjuice7]

It's clear felon doesn't own a dog so the next best thing to do is to find someone to blame for his current problems. felon obviously has no introspection at all or he may have considered it could have been the Nazi salute, the support for a far right German political party, the promise of 2 trillion $s of government waste he was sure he'd find, the hairy arsed incel called big balls as the poster boy for doge, the cruelty of mass sackings from government departments, the appearance of a billionaire denying aid to the poorest people around the world, the fact that Chinese EVs are kicking tesler's (sic) arse around the world. you wouldn't piss on felon if he was on fire.