Tesla reportedly sacks its head of US and Europe

Omead Afshar was promoted within Tesla management last autumn to oversee the company’s business in the US and Europe. While Tesla never officially confirmed the appointment, there were credible reports from the US in October about Afshar’s promotion. The manager was considered one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants and had worked for Tesla since 2017.

Tesla hardly ever comments publicly on its personnel or hierarchies. Outwardly, Tesla is represented by only three executives: in addition to Musk as CEO, these are CFO Vaibhav Taneja and Tom Zhu, Senior Vice President for Automotive. Zhu, who for a long time was regarded as an internal rising star, reportedly returned to China in early 2024, according to a previous Wall Street Journal report, and has been acting his role from there. Afshar is said to have taken over some responsibilities previously held by Zhu in his new dual role in North America and Europe. He reportedly reported directly to Elon Musk.

Although Afshar’s exact assignment was never known, his downfall is likely linked to the declining sales figures in both regions. Demand has particularly collapsed in Europe, down 45 per cent since the beginning of the year, although there have been slight signs of recovery since May. Industry observers attribute lower sales to Tesla’s ageing model range, increasing Chinese competition, and CEO Musk’s right-leaning political activities.

Afshar is said to have most recently led a team of more than half a dozen managers at Tesla. According to information from German Handelsblatt, however, he was no longer listed internally as an active employee as of Thursday. Bloomberg was the first to report on his departure.

After joining Tesla seven years ago, Afshar initially worked in Musk’s office – first as a Project Manager, later as Project Director. Since July 2020, his LinkedIn job title has featured a cowboy hat emoji – he was involved in the construction of Giga Texas. Most recently, he served as Vice President for Production and Sales. According to Forbes magazine, he was dismissed personally by Musk.

Tesla has always had high staff turnover, including at top management level. The last major departure was long-time CFO Zach Kirkhorn in summer 2023. Headlines were also made by the suspension of Rebecca Tinucci’s entire Supercharger team in spring 2024 – Tinucci now works for Uber.

handelsblatt.com (in German), forbes.com, bloomberg.com