Tesla loses long-time North American sales chief Troy Jones

Troy Jones, Tesla's head of sales in North America, has reportedly left the electric car manufacturer. His departure from the company follows the dismissal of Omead Afshar, until then head of the North American and European business.

The declining sales figures have had consequences for some high-ranking positions at Tesla. As the Wall Street Journal reports, this now also affects Troy Jones, Tesla’s long-standing sales manager in North America. Troy has left the company after 15 years, according to well-informed sources. For the last five years or so, he was the head of Tesla’s sales activities in the USA. It is not clear from the report whether he himself has resigned or been dismissed. Jones continues to list his previous position at Tesla on LinkedIn.

Jones’ departure follows the dismissal of Omead Afshar, a long-time confidant of CEO Elon Musk, who was promoted to head of Tesla’s business in Europe and the USA just a few months ago. Apparently, the management wants to make a fresh start in the sales area. The pressure is immense: demand in Europe, in particular, has plummeted by 45 per cent since the beginning of the year, although there have been very slight signs of recovery since May. Industry observers attribute the weakness of the electric car pioneer to the ageing model range, increasing Chinese competition and the right-wing political activities of CEO Elon Musk.

There has always been a high turnover of staff at Tesla, including in top management. The last major departure was long-serving CFO Zach Kirkhorn in the summer of 2023. The suspension of Rebecca Tinucci’s entire Supercharger team in spring 2024 also made headlines: Tinucci now works for Uber. Jenna Ferrua, Tesla’s Head of Human Resources for North America, also recently left the company.

Tesla itself hardly ever comments on its personnel and hierarchies. Externally, Tesla is only represented by three executives: In addition to Musk himself as CEO, these are Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja and Tom Zhu, Senior Vice President for Automotive. According to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal, Zhu, who was long regarded as an internal beacon of hope, returned to China at the beginning of 2024 and fills his role from there. Omead Afshar, who has since been dismissed, was then supposed to have taken over some of the tasks that were previously the responsibility of Zhu in his new dual role in North America and Europe. He reported directly to Elon Musk, according to reports. Following his departure, Musk is now said to have assumed direct responsibility for Tesla sales in these markets.

wsj.com (Paywall) via electrek.co