Tesla recently lost key executives in charge of its most popular electric models. Siddhant Awasthi, a rising star at Tesla who led the engineering of the cybertruck and, most recently, the Model 3, announced in a joint statement on Sunday that he had left the company after eight years. Emmanuel Lamacchia, Senior Product Operations Manager, model Y, also revealed his departure on LinkedIn over the weekend after eight years with the company.
Awasthi, who started his career at Tesla as a student and quickly revealed why he left, only realizing that it was not an easy decision given by Tesla “to grow willingly.” He received a Master’s degree in Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2017 and became the project manager for both the cybertruck and the Model 3 within five years. According to his LinkedIn page, Awasthi Oversaw Product Strategy, quality improvement and procurement management for custom molded truck.
Cybertruck -nana suffering from problems Since its launch in 2023, Tesla’s commercial failure has been heavily watched. The company stopped selling the base model cyberruck, which started at $70,000, in September due to weak demand. In March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) forced Tesla to recall nearly all of the 46,000-plus cybertrucks it had sold over an engineering error that caused the cars to move. Last month, Tesla issued another broad recall affecting 63,000 cybertrucks due to dangerous headlights.
And it has become a sign of a broader political shift in US politics since the election of Donald Trump last year. Called “Magamobile” and “Deplorean,” among other puns, the pickup is tied to Elon Musk – the wings of the wings, his close ties to Trump, and his involvement in the Second Department of the Government.
Financially, the political slowdown has hurt Tesla’s business, driving away many former fans of the brand. In October, Tesla reported a fourth-quarter profit decline, just in time. Cybertruck registrations plunged 63 percent in the third quarter, and Tesla has been offering frequent discounts amid layoffs and the loss of the $7,500 federal tax credit, which ends in September under the Trump Administration. To boost sales, some Tesla dealers have begun renting cybertrucks through their showrooms, according to Electrek.
Despite the ongoing battles in their EV business, Tesla is setting ambitious goals for the next AI-driven chapter. Last week, shareholders approved a massive compensation plan for Musk that will see the CEO increase the company’s market value to $8.5 trillion by 2035.